Regardless of your own political leanings on this issue, the fact remains that there is no current way to protect your job if you have a public presence on the internet. People who are simply looking for like-minded friends may discover that their criteria creates a label for them. For instance, a Myspace member may look for friends who are open-minded in all respects. However, when she looks for a job, a very conservative human resources department employee may become offended and throw the application in a round file before they even have a chance to meet.

The other side of this coin is the writer who is so politically correct his pieces have no punch. Even if writing will not be part of his job, communication is an important employment criteria. Where does the line get drawn, and who gets to draw it? Often the writer pencils in the line, but he will be judged on where it gets placed.

If you are reading this now and are concerned about your social networking pages, remember that deleting and changing your information may not be the opaque covers you expect. Sometimes files and links remain available and functional for months after you have deleted or altered them.

How can you protect yourself from this strange form of discrimination? Aside from not having social networking pages, try to anticipate what kind of information potential employers in your field will take offense to. You have to understand your industry and its members well enough to make your page an advantage instead of a hindrance.

For instance, if you are looking for a public relations position in a sports franchise, there is no real need to put on your page that you once participated in a group demonstration to legalize marijuana. However, if you were covering a sports event for a local newspaper and ended up “scooping” a growing protest during the occasion it may be an advantage. Again, you have to know your field, company, and others in your field to know if it will work against you or not.

Bottom line is this: If you suspect something could get you in hot water, you’re probably right. Any doubts about content should be red flags to you. However, in the end it may be more important for you to speak your mind than worry about business contacts. If you think it would be of more benefit to have the guts to say what you’ve got to say rather than be politically correct, then your choice is clear–just be ready with your flak vest on.

However, this powerful marketing tool is only effective when used correctly to maximize its potential and minimize unintended negative public perceptions, which often occur when social networking and social media marketing are not managed efficiently.

The Internet is littered with blogs that have not been updated in several months, Facebook pages that are rarely maintained and Twitter profiles that are sadly lacking tweets. Much of this social media debris is left behind by well-intentioned do-it-yourselfers who read up on all of the latest social media marketing techniques and the importance of social networking, and then set out on their own to broadcast their message and start connecting with their potential customers and clients.

Unfortunately, even the best-laid plans can go awry, particularly when you are attempting to maintain multiple social media blogs, profiles and other outlets on top of running a business, managing employees, juggling meetings, doing paperwork and attempting to squeeze in five minutes every now and again for a social life.

Online visibility is a beautiful thing, but this form of marketing is only beneficial if you have the ability to update each social networking site regularly and maintain constant communication through every avenue of social media where you have created a presence. Failing to do so reflects poorly on your business and gives false impressions, creating the public perception that you and your company are struggling, are no longer in business or simply do not care enough to maintain contact and complete regular updates.

Internet users are a fickle bunch constantly poised to partake in the latest trend and ready to move on to the next big thing. This fast-paced, information-at-your-fingertips environment of immediate gratification makes it even more imperative that you constantly update your social media outlets and maintain interesting, enticing profiles and blogs. A blog or profile that has not been recently updated will be perceived as abandoned and visitors will simply move on to the next one assuming that you and your company are no longer around.

At the same time, as you are struggling to maintain and update the social media outlets that you already have, new trends in social marketing will force you to constantly increase the number of online profiles you must manage by adding whichever social media websites have just come in to fashion to your social media outlet portfolio.

Social networking is a time-consuming task for even the casual user and it is completely understandable that time spent creating and maintaining multiple blogs and profiles, and communicating with friends and followers, will eventually need to be redirected to other responsibilities. However, the aftermath of falling into the trap of creating multiple profiles and blogs to the point of no longer having the ability to update and maintain them can be detrimental to your business and have the opposite effect of what you originally intended when embarking on this enthusiastic social media marketing campaign.

Essentially, social media marketing should not be considered a viable option unless you have the manpower to maintain your social networking efforts on a long-term basis. Your options are to stick with minimal social media marketing, create a plan for managing multiple outlets with regular updates and constant communication, or take advantage of services offered by a reliable company that is well-versed in this type of marketing and can manage your social media marketing efforts effectively.

The simple answer is to be remarkable. Create a product that people can’t help but discuss over and over again, a service that builds an evangelical body of consumers who run out into the market and spread the message of your business. Building something extraordinary is the key to success. But you can’t just build it, nor have a remarkable product, or an incredible service, you must find a way to let the world know about it.

The problem may lie in thinking that there is a “key” to success. There are keys to success, and most of them involve simple consistent steps to attain a goal. If the goal of your company is to reach a top ten search engine ranking using SEO to generate a ton of free traffic, then that should be a critical component of an overall marketing plan. The marketing plan should not rely on one tool, instead it should be a toolbox full of various methods to not only increase SEO but to generate word of mouth advertising. These tools can include a constantly updated blog with fresh relevant “talk-worthy” content on the site. They can include articles that are directed back to your site, widgets that consumers want and want to pass on to their friends, viral videos, branding banners and more. A good online marketing strategy uses a healthy mix of mediums and methods to get results. Take Ann Coulter for example. The conservative author and talking head generates a ton of “talk” by being extremely controversial. This talk leads to appearances on radio and television shows, but it also creates thousands of articles about her and blog posts, many which are linked back to her site. This creates a high ranking for her website, and in turn generates a barrage of cash for a brash opinionated talking head.

Your site doesn’t have to blame the ills of society on single mothers, but you can use the same mix to get similar results no matter what your product or service happens to be. Your business was created to solve a problem. The key is to discover the problem, agitate it, and then offer your solution in a constantly evolving method where the rules are complicated and ever changing. And run a business on top of it. Sometimes the best marketing strategy you can put in place is to work with a group of marketing professionals who make it their business to stay on top of trends and recognize how to build your marketing plan to help you succeed. Relying on expert opinions and techniques leaves you, the business owner free to focus on providing the remarkable service or product that people want to talk about.

Find Your Market

Before you write any articles – or have someone else do it – it is important to locate your audience. Slapping an article on your website is well and good, but how do you know who will actually be reading it? If the right people don’t read your content, then it will go to waste. The trick is to find places online where people who are interested and involved in your industry “hang out”; this may be through social networking websites or various other online communities. Create a presence within such a place, and then slowly begin introducing your articles.

Write With Authority

No matter what industry you work in, always create content that is authoritative and informative. Always keep in mind that you are not creating an advertisement in the traditional sense; rather, you are creating compelling content that will draw readers in so they will want to learn more. When you have gained people’s respect, they are much likelier to be responsive to your advice and any products or services that you have to offer.

Being prolific is very helpful when it comes to doing article marketing. If you can aim to produce at least one or two quality articles per week, then you will be way ahead of the game. Internet readers can be incredibly fickle, and you need to constantly work to maintain their interest. If you fall off the map for a week or two, you can lose a huge chunk of your readership. Although creating quality content is important, it’s better to post an imperfect article from time to time than to post nothing at all.

Communicate With Your Readers

Although you want to present yourself as an expert as much as possible, you should not close yourself off to feedback or constructive criticism. If people get the impression that you are thin-skinned or unwilling to debate various topics, they will invariably be turned off. A willingness and encouragement of feedback demonstrates that you are well versed enough in your area of expertise that you have no problem discussing it with others – this can give you an added boost of believability and authority.

To encourage feedback to the articles you write, always prominently display contact information like your email address and website URL. On sites that permit it, moderated comments can also be a great way to get a discussion going. Many people are just looking for a place to debate the topic they are interested in; making your site such a spot can only help your cause. Being open and communicative is a great way to enhance your expertise and to use article marketing to maximum possible effect. Let readers know that you’re willing to hear their point of view, and they will respect you that much more.

While the “how” and even “what” of SEO can be pretty complicated and confusing to the inexperienced, the “why” isn’t if explained well. In fact, the “why” (not as in “why use SEO” but “why use certain SEO strategies in particular cases”) is simply a measure of understanding a company’s business model, their industry, and the desired goals they have. Once I investigate a case and begin to make recommendations, I openly discuss and explore the “why” in the case of an individual client so they understand my rationale but most importantly can connect the dots themselves and feel better about making a final decision. Depending on their familiarity with SEO as a whole, I’m willing to walk them down the path of explaining everything in deeper detail, but I want every customer to at least know WHY we’re doing x, y, and z…and make them feel more knowledgeable and comfortable in the process.

This approach of course can and should be used for a myriad of different kinds of business and industries. If a customer wishes to contract or hire you for your services, chances are they don’t know your area of expertise very well at all, or in the very least don’t have the time to commit to it themselves (and most times when a customers cites the latter, the former is in play to an extent as well). As you begin to assess an individual situation and the time is right to deliver a proposal, be willing to disclose with the customer as much as they’re willing to hear about the “why”; not so much to justify the costs, but to help walk them through finalization by keying them in your thought and work process. It will add value to what you already do, and help release any apprehension felt by the customer.

While social networking websites provide a ready audience and ample opportunities for connecting with others, who you are actually communicating with is of the utmost importance. Your target audience will depend largely on the information that you are trying to convey and your purpose for using social networking as part of your overall communication efforts.

The first question to ask yourself is who is your audience? Are you using social networking to introduce your product or service to a broad audience and to increase brand awareness? Do you work in a small industry where networking with peers and keeping each other updated on innovations and advancements would be advantageous?

Determining your target audience is key to any marketing or brand awareness campaign, and social networking websites are no exception. Determine who you want to reach through social networking by considering the factors you are looking for in your audience. What are the basic demographics of your prospective client base? Who are the industry leaders and peers with which you would like to connect? Which industries or positions are your prospective contacts in?

Cultivate your list of contacts with care to ensure that you are actually reaching your target audience, and not just wasting your time sending updates and posting bulletins that are not conducive to your growth or meeting your goals. Once you have established a contact base, continue to grow that base by seeking out additional possible contacts, posting regularly and reminding your established contacts to refer others to you.

What and how often you post will play an important part in retaining the interest of your contact list and drawing in new contacts on a regular basis. For example, posting an update or bulletin once per month, or posting irrelevant information that is not of interest to your audience, is the surest way of losing their interest, and likely losing them from your list of contacts.

It is essential that you keep your audience engaged with regular, informative updates, whether that is industry news to share with your peers, or new products to introduce to your potential client base. Before you undertake a social networking campaign, create a communication plan that includes a long list of possible news topics, updates, engaging information and interesting posts that you can draw from regularly.

All too often, business owners and professionals enter the world of social networking on a whim and without a cohesive communication plan established to take full advantage of the multitude of industry networking and marketing opportunities social networking has to offer. Establish your social networking plan prior to setting up your profile and increasing your list of friends and contacts to ensure your readiness and prepare for success.

Like any business plan, communication plan or marketing campaign, social networking requires an established, well-organized plan of action in order for you to achieve optimal results and use this marketing and networking medium to its fullest potential.

However, a website that contains all of these essential elements but is difficult to navigate will prove ineffective in encouraging your potential consumers to become loyal customers. Website visitors enjoy useful information and interesting links; however, there is nothing more frustrating to your potential patrons than for them to find a website of interest, only to be utterly confused – and eventually disengaged – by an overly complicated, messy navigational stream of endless pages and links.

There are several reasons why a clumsy conglomeration of overwhelming navigational twists and turns is a bad idea for your website, not the least of which is the fact that this will confuse search engine crawlers and negatively affect your search engine ranking. Multitudes of sub-categories and pages within your site are sure to baffle search engine crawlers, which will undoubtedly hinder their ability to effectively rank your site and will prove injurious to your overall ranking. This, of course, will lead to fewer visitors, which is obviously counterproductive.

To avoid this common trap, establish a clear goal for your website prior to populating its pages. Whether the goal is to sell products, generate leads, market your services or increase subscriptions, every website needs a clear goal on which to focus navigation and content. Once the goal of your website has been established, only include pertinent information that is of interest to your target audience and will encourage them towards this goal. Overwhelming them with unnecessary information will only obstruct the path you want them to follow that leads from entering your site to purchasing your product or signing up for your mailing list.

Navigation is key to keeping your website visitors on this path. Navigation should be as simple and straightforward as possible and should guide your visitors directly towards your website’s ultimate goal, with each stop along the way encouraging them to move forward on this path. Navigational systems that branch off in many directions and lead your visitors away from this path will thwart their progress towards your goal and can render your best laid plans and extensive marketing efforts ineffectual.

Ensure proper search engine ranking, guide your visitors directly to your end goal and create a website that is user-friendly by implementing a clear, concise plan to drive your website traffic directly from the start line to the checkered flag. Clean, straightforward navigation is an essential component to reaching this goal and should be considered early on as you develop your website and select content. Deep links that draw your audience into your site and enticing information that is of interest to your potential consumers are important; simply keep in mind that sometimes less is more and avoid overwhelming and confusing them with unnecessary pages or links.

By doing a bit of research online, business owners can gain a better understanding of how a site like Twitter can be used to their advantage. This web page is a great example of the types of online discussions happening all the time about how social media can work for a company. In this case, the merits of Twitter are explained in the context of a small business; however, its overall theme can be applied in virtually any online marketing situation.

Unlike designing a static website, using a social media service like Twitter offers businesses amazing versatility – and flexibility. As noted in the previously linked article, “Both Liz and Anita explained that Twitter provides small business owners with a great way to drive traffic to their sites and to connect with people. It’s more flexible, covers more niches, its faster and comes with a wider reach than many of the other social networks.” How would these observations apply to and benefit one’s business? The answer lies in the basic simplicity of a site like Twitter.

Before launching your company on a social media site such as Twitter, create a “throwaway” account on the service and use it to experiment – and to see what the site is capable of. Accrue a couple of dozen followers, and aim to follow at least as many yourself. Tinker around with it to get a feel for its culture. This way, when your business does go “live” on the site, you are less likely to alienate or annoy people.

Indeed, when it comes to online social media sites, fitting in is absolutely vital. As mentioned in the article, sites like Twitter can have major benefits for the marketing campaigns of a company – as long as the company understands them and goes with the flow, rather than attempting to inflict their own demands upon such a service. In other words, a business that creates a presence on Twitter without understanding its culture runs the risk of losing customers rather than gaining them.

Websites like Twitter are also valuable thanks to their function as “satellite communities”. Having a presence on Twitter increased your company’s odds of finding other communities related to their specific industry. Essentially, this is a whole new form of networking; missing out on it is a huge mistake for any business to make. Learning how to use it deftly and with ease can dramatically improve your networking capabilities and give you a leading edge over many other companies in your industry.

In a nutshell, then, aim to learn as much as possible about the type of social media site you are interested in using. Create a throwaway account to familiarize yourself with its culture. Develop a presence on the site that fits in but uses the format to market your business. Over time, it will become a very valuable advertising tool.

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Along with a demand for private profiles, many social networking site users began clamoring for stricter controls regarding friend requests. The reason for this demand lay largely in the annoying phenomenon of receiving frequent requests from completely unknown people. While some people use social networking to make new friends or for dating purposes, the vast majority use it to stay connected with the people who they already know. A friend request from a complete stranger is not a very welcome occurrence for many people.

Why Random Friend Requests Are A Problem

The practice of sending random, unsolicited friend requests to complete strangers is largely frowned upon among the vast majority of social networking sites. A big reason for this is the proliferation of spam friend requests that have occurred in the past; certain companies and disreputable websites have been known to send out thousands of random friend requests in an attempt to garner attention. As more and more people have encountered this phenomenon, more and more have become wary of receiving requests from people who they do not know.

If a person sends out random friend requests strictly to meet new people, this is viewed as strange in and of itself. Sites like Facebook are not really geared toward expanding one’s social circle, but are more for keeping connected with one’s existing set of friends and family. Therefore, most people who receive random friend requests from strangers promptly delete the request and move on.

When friend requests are used for business purposes, people are even less receptive – and can become incredibly annoyed. Such requests are essentially the same as cold calls in the telemarketing world, and are usually considered to be just as annoying. As the people using social networking websites becomes more savvy, they are less and less likely to accept such random, business-oriented friend requests; at the same time, marketers are bound to become more and more creative in their efforts.

Friend Request Etiquette

In cases where you genuinely want to reconnect with an old friend who may or may not remember you, it is important to do so in a way that will not alienate them and make them deny your request out of hand. The best way to achieve that goal is by including a brief note along with the friend request, explaining who you are, how you know the person and why you want to connect with them. This way, they can make an educated determination about whether or not they want to accept your request.

Adding an explanation to your friend request also helps alleviate the alienating feeling of getting a request from a random stranger on the Internet. Keeping it short and to the point will increase the likelihood of it being taken seriously. By following this protocol, you are much less likely to annoy friends, colleagues and associates online

In order to accomplish this, you must first determine the purpose of your website and establish clear, measurable goals. The first step in doing this is asking yourself what you want your website to do. Do you want your website to introduce established customers to new products? Do you want it to build your mailing or prospect list? Or, draw in new customers or clients? Everyone knows that they need a website, but few take the time to determine the actual purpose of the website before going live.

The next step is to determine your audience. Now that you know the purpose of your website, this task should be much simpler. If the purpose of your website is to introduce new products to established customers, then your audience is made up of the customers already on your mailing list. If the purpose is to bring new customers or clients into the fold, then your audience is comprised of the folks who fit the demographic profile of your potential customers. Knowing your audience prior to creating the design, layout and content of your website is absolutely essential. For your website to successfully fulfill its purpose, it must be specifically designed to lure, entice and satisfy your target audience.

Once your website is online, measuring visitor traffic is a vital part of determining the overall success of your website, testing layouts and designs to find the right combination of features for your audience, and shaping your website to optimize each contact with a potential customer or client. Measuring visitor traffic also allows you to determine how your visitors got to your website, how long they were there and which features or content were of the most interest to them. This is valuable information that gives you a better perspective regarding what is – and is not – working and allows you to adjust your layout, design or content accordingly.

Each of these components – defining the purpose of your website, determining your target audience and measuring traffic in order to fine-tune your layout and content – are important pieces in creating optimal website usability and establishing a foundation for encouraging your visitors to do the things you want them to do, which include interacting with the website, providing you with valuable marketing data, purchasing your products or services and referring their friends to your site.

The only way to entice your visitors to complete these tasks is to provide them with incentives to do so. Interesting videos, fun facts, informative downloads and unique, appealing content are all tools that can be used to lengthen your visitors’ stay, encourage visitors to return, motivate them to partake in a little social bookmarking, and inspire them to tell their friends about the unique, informative website they just discovered.

Keep in mind that your target audience is constantly bombarded with media and marketing. Therefore, increasing brand awareness and continually reminding them of your company or organization is paramount to your success. Regular, repeated contact is the key to growing brand awareness and increasing your conversion rate and should be one of the main purposes for your website. Continually adding new content and updating your website is a great way to provide new, interesting information each time your visitors return. Another way to encourage repeat visits is to distribute a regularly scheduled newsletter with enticing content containing links to your website. This is an effective way to remind your audience about your website, as well as your products or services, and will keep them coming back for more.

Because today, your press release can have a life of its own on the internet and can be found, read, and hopefully induce action upon by a potential customer, business contact, or someone else who can extract value from its contents while also benefiting the source and subject of the release itself.

Applying search engine optimization elements help a release on two fronts; First, to better promote the release itself so it can be more visible to the journalists and other media personnel who may wish to run or issue the release for their own publication(s), and second to make the release more visible during its infancy on search engines and social media outlets for interested customers to find and take action before any publication decides to take it further.

Here are some specific ways SEO and Internet marketing functions can benefit a press release:

• Increased Exposure – By embedding the applicable terms within the release itself, it is more searchable both for publications with a natural interest in the products/services highlighted, as well as targeted potential customers who search for these services on a daily basis.

• Real-time Reporting – Trackable links within the release which point to unique pages on the company’s website lead the reader to take further action. The landing page itself should have several enticements for the reader to take action to engage with the site. Analytics of the website assess the traction and impact a particular release has generated (total views of press release vs. total clicks of links embedded, for instance).

• Immediate Social Media Distribution – Multiple and immediate social media outlet submissions (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc).

• Blogosphere syndication – influential bloggers with a natural interest in the products/services mentioned can also reprint or expand further on the content of the press release and create more buzz.

• Embedded videos – Videos are extremely powerful marketing mediums, and statistics have shown that Press Releases with videos increase reader interaction by 30% – 50%

With all the competition for the attention of your audience, it is becoming increasingly important to engage your reader with options, which they find attractive. In so doing, you produce far better results, and the added real-time reporting capabilities allow you to prove it to your clients.

First go back to the basics. You must be remarkable, either in product, service or information that you choose to pass along. When you Twitter your followers, you want them to know that anything you pass along is going to be valuable or informative or entertaining, hopefully while informing. As a business owner, you never want to post a boring Twitter post, you never want to be inane or worse, completely forgettable. Your post needs to be worth passing along. It needs to be noteworthy, so that when a post comes from you, your followers read it.

That’s a ton of information to pack into one 140 character sentence, isn’t it? Relax, Twitter is a great tool to stay in touch with your customer base, and it just involves some careful planning. Don’t info-dump on your followers. While you may have a lot of information to impart, if you can crunch it down to one simple sentence, then you need to revisit what you want to say. It’s been phrased as a unique selling proposition when you apply the formula to the business (Why are you in business?) but you can use the same formula for your post- boil it down to a simple sentence that makes them want more, and produces an action. The action is usually a click through or visit to your blog where you can expound on your idea at length.

If you don’t have the time to write original content for your business blog, you could spend time combing the Internet for articles of value for your clients. Again, find the USP for your audience, and tweet them with it. You can use your blog as a portal, so that your customers get used to visiting your site first, before you link them to another article at another site. This task does not have to be time consuming. You should be reading about your clients, customers and market to keep up to date, and when you run across something interesting, Tweet it.

The next thing you can do is create an RSS feed for your largest clients so that when they’re mentioned in the news, you can tweet your followers to check out the article. How appreciative do you think your client would be that you’re promoting them to your list? This builds depth to the relationship and can create additional sales opportunities by putting you on the forefront of your clients mind. A business owner can also direct message people they follow on Twitter who have provided information they find valuable. Making that kind of connection can lead to powerful joint venture partnerships, mentor opportunities, or additional clients based on being mentioned in their future tweets. As a business owner you know how valuable feedback can be, and you’re searching for clients to have a conversation with, so as you follow people on Twitter, you should be the kind of follower you wish to have.

Twitter is just a few years old and is evolving. Keep a log of your Tweets as a reference throughout the year, and use it to adjust your marketing calendar. If you notice something occurs over a certain quarter, make plans for that quarter the following year and be prepared. The key to successful Tweeting is to follow a set plan, be an invaluable resource to your followers and don’t abuse the right to communicate with them.

Keywords and SEO

As you probably know, SEO writing relies on keywords sprinkled throughout your website content. These keywords are words or phrases your ideal customer or client enters into search engine windows to find businesses like yours. If you do not have the keyword posted in your content somewhere, you will probably not end up in the top search return positions.

Some rocket scientist out there in cyberspace decided to try keyword stuffing. He or she started repeating the search term keywords over and over. For instance, if you sell red widgets, your keyword stuffing might be an article that looks like this: “Red widgets. Red widgets red widgets. Red widgets, red. Widgets….” Seems pretty underhanded, doesn’t it?

That’s why the search engines now consider this unethical practice a good reason to boot you from the search results if you do this. For best results, have well written and meaningful articles on your website with a keyword concentration of not more than 4%. Black hat SEO techniques will get you banned and blacklisted.

Also be wary of keyword stuffing in metatags. Not only is it risky in the same way the content keyword stuffing is risky, but search engines do not even use metatags much anymore for their results. Why bother with the risk?

Backlinks

While having a good number of backlinks–links posted on other websites to yours–tells a search engine that your site is relevant and important, the practice of using link farms can get you banned, too. A link farm is a collection of websites that all link to each other, creating automatic link popularity. Another word for this technique is spamdexing, because link farms spam the search engines’ indexes.

Again, any website owner who sees others do this may be tempted to do the same, but remember that it is unethical and can get you in trouble. The search engines have become sophisticated enough to filter link farm results from your page. They now influence rankings very little, and when they do it is not positively.

Of course, in the end many people do not get caught doing these highly unethical forms of influencing their search engine rankings. Black hat SEO is still employed now and then, but keep in mind that long term success of these web pages is not very likely. The best ways to keep above the table with SEO are:

• Have good content with 4% keyword concentration
• Use metatags wisely
• Get relevant backlinks from reputable sites
• Avoid new SEO techniques that may come up in the future if they seem underhanded

Follow these rules and you will avoid the bad reputation that comes with black hat SEO.