It is important to implement keyword research, subtitle optimization and other search engine optimization techniques. It is also important to be active on web 2.0 sites: Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter. However, there is a much simpler and equally as effective action to take after each post you make.

SHARE YOUR POST!

As you will see below the title of everyone of my blog posts; there is a blue button “Share”. Each time I post to the blog, I share it with as many directories, social bookmarking sites and other web 2.0 sites as possible. Below is a simple three step process on how to share and increase your readership:

1. Sign-up for a membership to as many sites that take article submissions.
2. Submit your most recent post to all sites you are a member of.
3. Repeat and continue to add sites to your submission circle.

Following is a list of the sites I submit every blog post to (I put my top 5 referrers in bold):

• Business Exchange
• Twitter
• Digg
• Delicious
• Reddit
• Propeller
• Newsvine
• Yahoo MyWeb
• Kirtsy
• Facebook
• MySpace
• StumbleUpon
• Technorati
• Mixx
• Google Bookmarks
• Windows Live

More in depth information on each of these sites to come! I hope all of you can increase your blog/website traffic by using this tip.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is crucial in today’s business world to understand SEO. Every company and individual should strive to be on the first page of Google for various keyword searches. In order to do this, you must be great at what you do and write valuable content on your field of expertise. Twittering allows you to publish short (140 character) blogs, which will appear on the feeds of all your followers. If other Twitter members find your content interesting they will follow you, so they can see all your future posts. The more followers you have, the greater your credibility will become and your search engine ranking will consequentially increase.

Along with the inherit SEO benefit, Twitter is valuable in several other ways. Firstly, it is a lightning fast form of communication to a large group. You can keep colleagues, partners and friends up to date on breaking news or insider information within seconds of finding out. And with Twitter applications for the iPhone and Blackberry, it is just one click away. Once logged in, you can quickly type your message, click update and within a fraction of a second all your followers receive the message. Twitter can also be integrated into corporate and personal blogs. This way any Twitter updates you make on the road will automatically feed to your blog. Twittering is also a valuable tool at large events, such as conventions. Instead of the conventional Q&A session at the end of speeches, a screen can be set up on stage and the audience members can Twitter their questions, which will appear on the big screen. This way everyone can hear the question without the usual confusion. These are just a few of the ways Twitter can offer value to the business world. For more information on Twittering, feel free to contact us.

Everyone understands the concept of Facebook, but few business professionals understand how their company can capitalize on utilization of the platform. This article will be your step-by-step guide for unlocking the hidden value of Facebook.

1. Registration: The first thing to do for all new members is obviously registration. Once logged in, take a look around your home page and become familiar with the new feed. Your news feed will keep you up to date with all the actions of your friends. The setting can easily be changed if you only want to be notified of certain actions.
2. Friend Requests: Once you have your bearings it is time to invite partners, friends and colleagues to become your friend. Now it is time to get down to business.
3. Complete Profile Info: Fill out all the information in your profile exactly how you would with your LinkedIn Profile. Search engines are going to crawl this page, so you want as much professional information as possible, as it will help with your ranking.
4. Add Application: Browse through the application gallery and add apps that you see useful. I recommend adding the RSS reader to your page and then linking your personal or corporate blog to it. This will drive traffic to your blog and will add another link to your blog. Another useful app to add is the Twitter app, which will directly feed all your twitters to your profile.
5. Create Groups: Create a group for your whole company, departments or project teams. You can set these groups to private or leave them open for the public based on the reason the group was created. Applications can be added to groups if needed. Use the discussion forum and wall to quickly communicate with team members on specific projects or problems.
6. Create Product/Service Fan Page: Establish your brand by creating a large following on Facebook. Fan Pages are vital because they allow consumers to communicate directly with the company and/or other consumers. If you just released a new product, your fan page can give you a great deal of value feedback, as most likely your fans will start discussions on the page. These pages also allow your consumers to be very hands on because they can upload pictures and videos.
7. Advertising: Facebook makes all of its revenue from advertising and has developed quite the impressive ad platform. Depending on the size of your company, you can choose different types of advertising. Anyone can buy ads at any time by number of clicks or by number of impressions. When you run this type of ad, you choose what you want to advertise, type in the text of the ad, upload the photo for the ad, choose a social action, pick the location (worldwide, state, city), pick the sex, pick the age, type in keywords, set a daily budget, pick your max bid and finally choose your schedule. The social actions are stories about a user’s friends that are related to and displayed alongside your advertisement. You can select which pages or applications provide relevant social actions that can be paired with your ad. Another type of advertisement that larger companies use, links actions taken on a company’s website to actions taken on Facebook. If your friend rents a movie on Blockbuster.com, he/she can choose to share this on Facebook. If they choose yes and one of your friends likes the genre of movie you rented, an ad will appear in that friend’s news feed stating X rented Y movie from Blockbuster.com. The level of personalization Facebook has created for their advertising platform separates them from other social networks.
8. Insights: Along with the superior ad platform, Facebook has developed a powerful research platform to track the performance of your ads. You have access to data on activity, fan demographics, ad performance and trends. With this information, you are better equipped to improve your custom content on Facebook and adjust your ad targeting. Their robust database of authentic demographic information provides you with deep understanding of exactly who is engaging with your business and how. Best of all, this service is completely free.
9. Application Creation: Another great way to promote your company is to develop a powerful application. With Facebook Platform, you can create applications that integrate deeply into Facebook, harness the power of the social graph and create new opportunities for you business. The platform provides you with all the necessary tools to quickly create custom experiences for users to interact with your business. There is currently over 400,000 registered developers on Facebook, so don’t wait any longer.

As you now know, Facebook should not be taken lightly. It is one of the most powerful web 2.0 platforms available in the current market and all businesses should be implementing a few of these discussed steps. Social networks are not just for fun anymore, which is why companies like Ernst and Young, Apple and Nike all have strong presences on Facebook.