Directory submissions are an effective way to promote your business on the internet for free and improve your Google rank. It is a great way to grow your business online.

Although with the rise of social media, traditional link building techniques are not considered as important as they were once considered, adding your website to directories is still an important component of an effective internet marketing strategy.

Rather than submit your website to any directory you can find on the internet, it is better to be selective and choose high ranking directories or niche directories that specially target your industry.

Impact of Directory submissions on Google Rankings

Search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing take many factors into account when determining the rank of your website on search results. One of the most important factors is incoming links to your website from external websites. This is where directory submissions help.

It can prove to be a valuable asset if your website is not ranking on Google as well as you would like it to.

Other Internet Marketing Benefits of Directory Submissions:

Directory Submissions offer a number of benefits. The main benefits are discussed below:

1. Easy Way to Build Back-Links

As we have discussed above, directory submissions is a quick and easy way to obtain incoming links to your company’s website. This in-turn improves your rank on search engines such as Google.  Niche directories that target specific sectors offer further benefits as you get to build links from relevant topics sites which improves your Google rank for targeted keywords.

2. Faster Indexing on Search Engines

Listing your website on high ranking directories such as DMOZ can get your website indexed faster on search engines. This is particularly beneficial if your website is new. Whenever I design a new website for a customer, one of the first things I do is list its URL on the leading free online directories. Another advantage of directory listings is that you get to choose your anchor text which offers better SEO results.This leads to quick indexing on search results.

3. Improved Visibility for Your Brand

In addition to improving your search engine rank, listing your site on popular directories can bring direct exposure for your brand. Leading directories like DMOZ rank high and received tens of thousands of visits daily.

4. Improved Leads

Many consumers use directories to find businesses. Certain online directories serve a similar purpose to traditional yellow pages. Yell.com or Thomson’s local are perfect examples of online directories that are very popular among consumers and used widely to find a business, product or service.

5.  Targeted Audience & Traffic

In addition to general directories, there are many niche directories that target specific industries or sectors e.g. web directories. Listing your website on niche directories is a great way to attract a highly targeted audience.

Similarly, you can also take advantage of local directories that focus on specific areas.

6. Benefit From Additional Promotion Options

Directories have evolved in recent years. Many directories now also offer a range of additional innovative features that you can take advantage of to promote your business or improve your sales. Take a look at Superpages below, a popular new directory. In addition to free listing it also offers features such as daily deals, coupons, business guarantee seals and more.

7. Directory submissions are Mostly Free

And last but not the least, most web directories are free. It thus offers an inexpensive way to promote your business online and improve your Google rank. Some high ranking web directories do charge a free for adding your links but they are few compared to the number of free directories.

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Website menu and navigation is very important in web design. It is crucial to usability of your website is an essential component of effective web design.

A well designed navigation menu not only improves the visual appeal of your website, but also also makes it easy to navigate through the website.

However there is more to effective navigation than good design. Usability plays an equally important role in menu design. A simple clean menu is usually more user-friendly and promotes better indexing on search engines.

In this article we take a look at 10 inspiring examples of website navigation menus that add interactivity to the website and help to reinforce the design. We also discuss what is good about the menu.

The menu designs featured in this list have been chosen based on the following factors:

• Design and visual appeal
• Simplicity and ease of use
• Creativity & Innovation

Here are 10 simple yet innovative website menus with great usability.

1. Creative New Zealand

Creative New Zealand is the national arts development agency developing, investing in and advocating for the arts.

Large colour coded parent menu items make it very easy to read and navigate.

The dropdown menu is also used effectively to promote featured content within respective sections of the site.

The menu also includes a lot of relevant informative e.g. full contact details are displayed within the ‘contact us’ dropdown, minimising the need to click through and visit the contact page.

2. Estee Lauder

The minimalist design and toned down colour of the menu works well and creates an up-market feel. Light colours also make the extensive list of sub-options easy to look at.

An innovative feature of this menu is presentation of special offers and call to action inside the dropdown. This offers improved navigation in addition to promoting offers or specials.

3. Bonlook

The fashion and vintage eyeglasses company have a well designed menu on the website that is very easy to use. It makes excellent use of whitespace around items, making it clutter-free and very easy on the eye.

The ‘browse by shape’ feature of the menu further improves the usability of the website by making it very easy for customers to find the right style of glasses that meets their needs.

4. Mashable

Mashable is one of the leading Technology blog and online community. The design of the menu is simple and easy to use.

An innovative feature of this menu is its unique way of presenting featured content within the menu. As you hover over a category or sub-category in the menu, the top 3 featured content from that section is displayed in the right column of the dropdown menu. This is a very effective way to make sure customers stay longer and don’t leave your website.

5. Audi.com

The official website of one of the leading car manufacturers offers dual navigation menu at the top of the website, one for models and a general site menu. The ‘models’ menu shows detailed information in the dropdown menu including high resolution image for the model which makes it easy to find the right model type.

6. Porsche

The luxury car makers Porsche use a similar menu design approach to Audi. High resolution image of car including key features of the model such as price, engine type and top speed are all displayed in the dropdown.

7. Debenhams

A simple and elegant multi-column dropdown menu makes it easy to navigate through its many product categories and sub-categories.

Another simple but effective feature is colour coding of menu-items in the dropdown related to sale or offers in red. Use of ‘More’ link in category dropdown helps to keep the menu size manageable.

8. Marks & Spencer

This is another example of a simple but elegant dropdown menu, similar to Debenhams. What is different about this menu is that it offers multiple browsing options within the menu e.g. Shop by Category, Shop by Brand, New & Exclusive, etc. This is great from a usability point of view and can help increase conversions.

9. Bressane.Com

Bressane is a creative design and photography agency from Brazil. The menu on this website is a perfect example of how a simple design can be user friendly and look great at the same time.

Conclusion:

Current design trends seem to favour the use of simple clean-cut navigation menus on websites. We have seen above that a simple design can be equally effective for creating innovative navigation menus that are visually appealing and user-friendly. You can use these unique design examples for inspiration when designing or improving your website.

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Article marketing is the process of publishing articles to promote your business and drive traffic to you website. There are several free article directories and web 2.0 websites that let you publish articles for free.

Article marketing offers many benefits. It is a great way to improve the visibility of your brand online and build back-links to your website.

Here are the top 10 article marketing tips to help you get started:

1. Choose Your Topics Wisely

Identifying the right topics to write about is one of the first steps in any effective article marketing strategy. Choose topics that are relevant to your niche. E.g. if you are using article marketing to promote your web design business, choose topics related to web design, graphic design, usability, or design trends.

It helps to maintain a list. Remember to use keyword analysis tools such as Google keyword tool to research topics or to refine your list. It is a great tool that will help you to identify topics with high search volumes.

2. Publish Articles on Several Sites

For best results, publish your articles on a number of websites. There are several high ranking article directories that you can use. These include:

• EzineArticles.com
• ArticleBase.com
• Amazines.com
• WebProWorld.com
• ArticleAlley.com

Additionally, you can use a number of other web 2.0 and content sharing sites. These include:

• HubPages.com
• Squidoo.com
• EHow.com

3. Choose Compelling Titles

Use of compelling titles for articles is very important for writing popular articles. If your title is not appealing, it is not likely to generate interest. Attention grabbing titles on the other hand tend to perform well.

You can take advantage of list posts such as “Top 10 Ways to…” or”15 reasons for… ” as well instructional articles such as “How to …”  which are very popular among readers.

Take a look at typical daily stats for this blog below.  List articles feature prominently in the top 5 most viewed articles.

4. Write Quality Content

The quality of articles is one the most important factors for the success of your article marketing campaign. Well written articles can continue to provide new back-links and a steady stream of traffic for many years after being published.

You can take advantage of proven techniques to improve the quality of your content and create popular articles.

5. Optimise Your Content (for SEO)

Your article is not likely to provide significant benefits if readers are not able to find it online. It is thus essential to optimise your articles for search engines before publishing. Standard SEO and keyword optimisation tips apply including keyword density, use of keywords in headings, image alt tags, etc.

Your primary focus should however always be on writing for readers and not for search engines. Writing purely for SEO can be detrimental to your branding and have a negative impact on your marketing strategy.

6. Write Unique Articles

Publishing identical content on several sites reduces the SEO benefits. Search engines, particularly Google, favour unique content and are able to spot duplicate content across multiple websites.

For best results, try to publish unique content on every website. In practice, this can be very time consuming and not always feasible, especially if you publish regularly and publish on multiple websites. To get around this, many publishers use a technique called ‘ article spinning’ which involves creating slightly different versions of the same article for use on separate article websites.

7. Publish Frequently

The more you publish, the more noticeable will be the benefits of article marketing. More articles also mean more backlink opportunities, and better search engine ranking and traffic.

8. Promote Your Articles

It is important to find some time to promote your articles to get the most out of your content. Social bookmarking is a quick and effective way to do this. Whenever I publish a new article, I share a link to the article on all my social network profiles.

There are many other ways to share your article. Perhaps you can add a “Top Articles” widget on your website with links to respective articles on article directories where your content is published. You can also promote your content via email marketing.

Take a look at the results of a recent study conducted by Curata below that shows the top ways to share content with customers and prospects.

9. Track Your Performance

There are several ways to track your performance. Most article sites offer built-in statistics such as total views and URL clicks. Additionally, you can also use custom variables in Google analytics to track article marketing traffic.

Don’t just monitor your results but take action where necessary and refine your strategy as required. Put more focus on sites that perform well and try out changes if conversions are poor.

10. Write a Good Author Box

Author Box is a short biography of the author displayed at the end of an article. From an SEO perspective, this is one of the most important parts of your article.

Writing a good author box is vital to get the most out of your article marketing efforts. This is where you have the opportunity to promote your business, which is the main purpose of writing the article for many. This is where you would typically include information about your business and links to your website, blog or product.

Conclusion

Article marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote your business on the web. However it can be very time consuming.  For best results, you can leverage your articles by repackaging and distributing it on several mediums e.g. you can re-use your articles to create an e-book or to create documents and share on document sharing sites.

How do you use Article Marketing? We would like to hear from you. Please publish your response by leaving a comment below.

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Google plus pages are designed specifically for promoting a business, brand, organisation or product. It is different to your personal profile on Google plus. In other words, Google Plus pages are for business use whereas personal Google + profiles are for individuals

In this article we take a look at how you can custom brand your Google plus page. You will need to create a Google Plus page first before you begin to custom brand your page.

Google Plus Page – Main Elements

Before we start to customise the look and feel, let’s take a look at the main elements of a Google Plus brand page. See image below.

How to Custom Brand Your Google Plus Page? Step By Step Instructions

Customising your Google Plus page is similar to creating a custom branded Facebook page. Like Facebook, Google plus lets you custom brand your page with the help of a cover image and profile photo.

1. Login and Go to Manage Your Page

Sign-in to Google Plus and access the page you wish to customise.

2. Complete Your Profile

Make sure your profile is up to date. In order to update your profile, click on ‘edit profile’ link on top right of your profile page. See image below.

Following are the main information that will be displayed on the about section of your page. Provide as much information as possible.

• Page Title
• Introduction
• Hours of operation for your business
• Website: This will be the URL of your company’s website or blog, depending on the page you are creating. An active link to your website is displayed on the about section as well as below your profile photo on the right.
• Contact Information

3. Upload Your Profile Photo

The profile photo (typically your logo) is a square image of 252 pixels x 252 pixels. It is displayed in two places. A full size image is displayed on the right of your cover photo on your profile. A smaller scaled version is also displayed next to each of your updates in the timeline.

You can update your profile photo at any time from your profile tab.

If you upload an image larger than 252 pixels the built-in image editor will let you crop and adjust part of the image that should be displayed.

Tips:

For best results upload a square image of at least 252 pixels. Uploading a smaller image will lead to loss of quality as the image will be stretched to fit this size which will typically blur the image.

Keep in mind that a smaller version of your profile photo will also be displayed next to your status updates. Hence choose an image that will appear clear even in a smaller size.

4. Upload Your Cover Photo

In many cover photo is the main feature for custom branding your Google plus plus page. It is displayed prominently above your page and there are many ways to use it effective to reinforce your brand.

Google plus offers two templates for displaying your cover photo, standard layout and scrapbook. There are explained in detail below.

Standard Format:

The standard layout uses a single full width cover photo that stretches across the top of your Google plus page. The dimensions are 940 pixels width x 180 pixels height. You can upload a larger image and use the built-in image tool to crop the image.

In the standard layout, your profile image is displayed over the right part of your cover photo.

Tips:

For maximum clarity upload an image of the right dimension.

You can use text such as tagline, company information, or other high impact words effectively as part of your cover photo to get your brand message across.

Keep in mind that the right side of your cover photo will be hidden by the profile image (252 x 252 pixels). Try not to include any important information on this side of your image.

Scarpbook Format

If you don’t want to use a single large cover photo, you can use the scrapbook template that displays five smaller images in a “scrapbook” format. In this option, instead of a single full width cover photo, 5 smaller images are tiled next to each other with a few pixels gap between each.

Take a look at an example below.

What Next:

Now that you have a custom branded Google Plus page for your business, update your page regularly by adding valuable content to your timeline. This will add value to your page and attract the attention of users. I can guarantee from experience that if you share quality content, your user base and following on Google Plus will grow. It will not happen overnight but it will eventually.

This is another area where the benefits of having a blog becomes even more evident. Sharing new blog posts on your Google Plus is a very effective way to ensure your page remains fresh and up to date whilst helping you attract new readers for your post.

Have You Customised the Look of Your Google Plus?

Readers: If you have customised the branding of your Google Plus page with a cover photo and profile image, we would like to hear from you. Please share a link to your Google plus page in the comments section below.

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Google Plus is one of the fastest growing social networks with over 100 millions users. Businesses all over the world are using it to promote their brand and connect with consumers. It has established itself as a key player in the social media market and has become an integral part of an effective internet marketing strategy.

Why Use Use Google Plus?

If you want your business to be successful on social media, you need to look beyond Facebook and Twitter. Creating a Google Plus pages for your business is a great way to get your brand noticed online. It lets you target new audiences and can prove very effective for driving traffic to your website.

Every business needs a Google Plus page irrespective of whether you have a regular personal profile on Google Plus. If you have not created a Google Plus page for your business yet, you should build one today. The tutorial below provides a step by step description of how to create a Google Plus page for your business.

How to Use Google Plus for Your Business?

Google Plus Page is specially designed for businesses and brands, similar to a fan page on Facebook. Google Plus page is different to your personal Google Plus profile. Individuals and personal users create regular Google+ profiles whereas businesses, brands or organisations create Google Plus pages.

Once you have a business page set-up on Google Plus, you can use it to share content and build relationships with customers on multiple levels. Users can endorse your content with the +1 feature, leave comments, and tag your brand or follow your brand by join your circle. Another interesting feature of Google Plus platform is its Hangouts feature that enables companies to engage with fans, prospects, and customers through video conference calls.

How to Create A Google Plus Page?

1. Login to Your Google Account

You need to be logged in to your personal Google account before you can create a Google Plus page for your business. You can create a separate Google account for your business use or use your personal Google account. All Google services share a common login so you can use your Gmail or Google Analytics login if you have one.

You can create multiple Google+ pages if needed e.g. you may wish to create separate page for your company and your blog.

Tip:

Don’t worry if your Google+ page is linked to your personal Google account. Like Facebook pages, Google plus includes support for multiple administrators. You can add additional administrators for your Google plus pages at any time.

2.  Start the ‘Create Page’ Wizard

Now that you are signed in to your Google account, you can get started by accessing the ‘create page’ wizard in one of two ways. You can visit the Google Plus business page and click on “Create a Google+ Page” link.

Alternatively, if you have personal  profile on Google Plus, you can click on the ‘Page’ icon on your Google+ dashboard that is displayed on the left of your Google+ profile and then choose the ‘create page’ link from the next screen. See image below.

An easy to use interactive wizard will now guide you through the steps of creating your page similar to the wizard for creating a Facebook business page. These steps are explained in detail below.

3. Choose Appropriate Category for Your Page

In the first step after you click on ‘Create a Page’, you will be asked to choose the most appropriate classification for your page.  The following options are available:

• Local Business or Place
• Product or Brand
• Company, Institution or Organization
• Arts, Entertainment or Sports
• Other

Choose the right classification for your page. See image in next point below.

4. Enter Basic Info For Your Page

After selecting your classification, a form to provide basic information about your page will be displayed on the right. Add your information including your page name (i.e. your company name), your website URL, your category (i.e. your industry), then accept the terms and click on create page link at the bottom of the page.

See image below.

5. Customise Your Profile

The third step of the wizard lets you customise your public profile by providing a tagline and profile image (typically your company’s logo).  See image below. Try to choose a descriptive tagline that best describes your business or highlights your unique selling proposition (USP).

6. Promote Your Page

In the final step of the ‘create page’ wizard, Google+ will prompt you to promote the Google page you have just created and suggest a few ways you can do this. However before you start promoting your page, I would recommend on customising your page further to reflect your branding and sharing content on your page so it does not look empty.

Further Customisation:

The best way to custom brand your page is by uploading an appropriate cover photo and profile photo that reflect your brand. Cover photo is a header image displayed at the top of your page. You can upload or edit your cover and profile photos by visiting the profile tab. Alternatively, you can follow the step by step instructions on how to custom brand your Google+Page.

See image below:

What Next:

As this point your Google Plus page is technically ready and available to the public. However, without any content it is unlikely to attract any attention or offer value for users.

Like with other social media, the benefits to your business may not become evident at the start. You will need to share quality information on your Google Plus page if you want to attract users and build your network.

Start by adding some content. If you have a blog, you can share your recent blog posts. All updates will be displayed on your page’s timeline. Add some photos to make your timeline more appealing.

How Do You Use Google Plus?

How do you use Google plus for your business? Please share your responses by leaving a comment below.

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Commenting on blogs, social media sites as well as other sites that let users participate in discussions through comments is an excellent way to improve your online visibility and establish your expertise in your field.

Most sites that allow commenting let you include a link with your comment. This makes blog commenting an effective link building technique for improving your Google rank and driving traffic to your website.

However commenting can be time consuming. The following techniques will help you get the most out of commenting. Here are 15 ways to comment like a pro.

1. Don’t Spam

It is very important to contribute something of value that adds value to the topic being discussed in the post you are commenting on. Leaving comments just for the sake of attracting backlinks to your website can lead to negative branding. Moreover, most sites use comment spam plugins in addition to approving each comment manually to filter out poor quality or irrelevant comments.

2. Avoid Very Short Comments

A single sentence comment may be justified in some instances. However typically it is not easy to leave quality responses in a few words. It is generally recommended to use a couple of sentences in your comment at least.

3.  Use Real Name or Pen Name With Your Comment

The name you provide with your comment is typically used as the anchor text for your link. Many users use keywords as their name to improve search engine ranking for targeted keywords. However, this can make your comment appear as spam. It is recommended to use your real name or pen name (author name) instead which looks more natural and associated with better quality.

4. Comment on DoFollow Blogs

Only a small percentage of blogs use dofollow comments (instead of nofollow). Commenting on dofollow blogs offers better SEO benefits as these are considered high value links that promote better indexing on search engines. It thus helps to include a few dofollow sites as part of your commenting strategy. Perhaps, you can use keywords in your name on dofollow sites and use your real name on others.

5. Use The Link Field in Comment Form Wisely

Pay special attention to the link field of the comment form. Link building opportunities offered by comments is one of the most important benefits for commenting on sites as part of your SEO strategy. Your comment links can result in a steady source of traffic to your website. Use your links wisely.

Avoid linking directly to affiliate products or obscure sites. It is also a good strategy to link to internal pages on your website (not just the homepage) that is related to the topic of the content you are commenting on.

6. Avoid Links in Comment Body

Be very careful of including links within your comment body. As far as possible, avoid links in the main body of the comment. Instead use the link field of the comment form as discussed in the previous point. Links in your comment body is only accepted in very specific situations. In most cases it will trigger the spam filters and your comment will be rejected.

7. Use Gravatar in Comments

Gravatar is the profile icon or photo displayed in your comments. Although comment forms do explicitly allow you to upload your profile photo,  most blogs display user’s gravatar with comments. You can take advantage of free cservices such as Gravatar.com to attach a profile photo to your comments. After you create a free profile and upload your icon, it will be displayed automatically when you comment on any of the participating sites.

8. Include Social Links Where Allowed

Many sites now offer improved linking opportunities with commenting. E.g. many sites let you use your website or blog link as well as your Twitter handle or Facebook profile. Although these fields are optional, it is essential to take advantage of this feature if it is available. If the option to provide additional social profiles exists, use it. This will allow you to maximise online exposure.

9. Check ‘Comment Luv’ Box Where Available

Many sites also let you display the latest post from your blog automatically below your comment.   This is done with the help of plugins such as Comment Luv. Many users are who are not aware of what the ‘”Comment Luv” checkbox below the comment box means, leave it unchecked. If you don’t check the box, it will not be displayed.

10. Keep Your Disquss Profile Up to date

Many sites are now using global comment systems like Disqus instead of letting users comment as guests. Disquss is a popular commenting platforms used by some of the largest sites on the web. It lets users login and comment on all participating sites with a single central account.

Your comments are linked to your profile. If you don’t already have an account on Disquss, create one now and make sure you profile is up to date and connected with your website and social profiles.

11. Comment on Sites Relevant to Your Niche

Commenting on sites that don’t focus on the topics or don’t target the same audience as your website is of little use to your internet marketing efforts. On the other hand, commenting on sites that are relevant to niche will help you to build connections with bloggers from your niche and improve your online influence. Moreover, any traffic generated to your website will be  of a better quality and more targeted.

You can use Technorati to search blogs in your niche.

12. Comment Frequently

In order to see noticeable benefits for your business, you will need to participate and comment actively on blogs relevant to your niche. Leaving the occasional comment or two is unlikely to offer any benefits.

Those who contribute actively and leave quality comments frequently report significant improvements in website traffic and overall visibility of their brand.

Commenting frequently will get you more visibility, backlinks and traffic. Additionally, it can provide additional coverage on blogs that use widgets such as “Top Commentators”. See image below.

13. Don’t Be Offensive

There is no place of personal attacks or foul language when commenting as part of an internet marketing strategy. Stay on topic and discuss criticism constructively. Bad language can be detrimental to your brand.

14. Stay Away From Automated Tools

There are many software tools and services that offer automated commenting on websites. Avoid such tools at all costs. Some areas of Internet marketing are suitable for automation however commenting is not one of them. Most such commenting tools are nothing more than spam tools and end up leaving lot of spam comments on your behalf which is detrimental to your brand.

15. Focus on Quality over Quantity

We have discussed the importance of both, leaving quality comments as well as commenting frequently on sites to improve your visibility. However, it is important to ensure quality is never compromised. Comments are associated with your brand and its message especially if you are using it as part of your marketing strategy.

Conclusion:

Commenting is a widely used technique in internet marketing. Commenting on websites relevant to your niche can be very effective for improving your online influence as well as for building backlinks to your website. If you have a blog, you may also want to take a look at the top techniques to get more blog comments.

What is Your Commenting Strategy?

Do you use commenting as part of your internet marketing strategy? How much time do you spend and how actively do you pursue this method? I would like to hear from you. Please share your response by leaving a comment below.

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What is Klout?

Klout is a tool that measures social influence. Measuring online influence has become essential today. It helps to measure your growth, compare influence with others, identify networking opportunities, and more.

There are many social networking sites, making it difficult to track your performance independently across all networks. Klout solves this problem by offering a central place for measuring your combined influence.

There are several scoring systems and tools to measure social media influence. Klout is arguably the most popular and has become a universal standard for measuring social influence.

Everyone from leading brands and start-up businesses, to bloggers and personal users, are using Klout to measure and compare social influence. Klout is an equally beneficial as a tool to identify other influential people from your niche.

How Klout Works?

Klout calculates your total influence score on a scale of 100. It analyses and combines data from several leading social media websites to provide a combined measure of your online influence.

Klout keeps track of every time you share content, or engage with others on social networks. It is constantly analysing this data and updating your Klout Score. Klout score is very up to date and changes almost on a daily basis unlike many of the other website metrics such as Google PageRank or Alexa ranking.

Instead of simply providing an influence score, Klout gives a breakdown of topics you are most influential on. It also provides an insight and list of the top people that you influence across leading social networks. This can be very useful for exploring partnership or connection opportunities.

What Factors Does Klout Take Into Account?

The Klout score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. It tracks more than just how many times you share content or how actively you participate on social media.  Instead Klout pays special attention to what happens to your content after you share it with others on social media. It looks at the enagement or reaction your posts generate in order to determine your true ability to influence and impact others in your niche.

Here are a few of the social media actions Klout monitors to determine your overall online influence:

• Twitter: Retweets and Mentions
• Facebook: Comments, Wall-Posts, Likes
• LinkedIn: Comments, Likes
• Foursquare: Tips, To-Do’s, Done
• Google+: Comments, Reshares, +1

What Metrics (Scores, Ranks, etc) Does Klout Measure?

In addition to providing an overall Score of your influence called Klout, the site also provides the following 3 core metrics providing a better insight into your influence: True Reach, Amplification Probability and Network Influence.

Klout Score

This is the most important metric and provides an overall score which is a measure of your overall online influence. It is measured on a scale of 1 to 100 and is constantly changing based on the reactions your posts receive across various social channels.

True Reach

True Reach is a measure of the number of people you influence in your extended network. The more your reach, the larger the audience you attract when you share content on social media.

Amplification

This measures what happens to your content after you share it with others on social media. It keeps track of your content is ignored or liked, retweeted and commented on by others. Thus getting more ReTweets as well as more comments and Facebook likes, are all ways to improve your Klout score.

Network Impact

Your overall network impact depends on how influential your audience is. This is particularly important in social media. E.g. if you are followed by influential users who in turn have a high following themselves, you are bound to have a high impact as any content you post will be seen by all their followers as well, getting much more attention to whatever you have to say

Conclusion:

There is little doubt why it is important to measure social influence. However, there are many different tools to measure your social influence. How do you know which one to use? Over the last few years, Klout has established itself as the universal standard when it comes to measuring social influence. For the same it is important for a business to keep track of its Google ranking, it is important to keep track of your online or social influence.

Do You Use Klout?

How do you measure your social influence? Do you use Klout or do you use other tools instead? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

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Use of Maps is common in web design today.  We use maps on our website for several reasons, ranging from displaying our location to more complex implementations such as map based searches. Maps also add interactivity to website.

There are many powerful third-part map  frameworks that lets users easily embed maps into websites and blogs. Embedding a map in this way can add a lot of value to your site. It will give your visitors a quick overview of a location, route, or other area of interest. Moreover, the map is fully interactive, which means that customers can zoom in or out or drag the map to focus on a different area, while using the map to search or browse information on your website.

Here are 5 leading map services that you can use on your website for free:

1. Google Map

Google PR- 6
Alexa Rank- 13

Google Maps is undoubtedly the most popular and widely used map services on websites. It is a great way to improve the usability of your website. This web mapping  application by Google, powers many map-based services including the Google Maps website and over a  million other webs pages that use this service.

You can use Google map to embed simple location map on your website or use its powerful API to develop custom map applications. Its powerful Api offers an excellent opportunity to improve the usability of your website by creating interactive map applications that connect with your database.

2. Bing Maps

Google PR- 4
Alexa Rank- 30

Bing Maps is a web mapping service provided as a part of Microsoft’s Bing suite of search engines.

Bing offers similar features to Google Map. It lets you explore the world with interactive maps, search addresses, find directions, and more.  Like Google Map, you can embed Bing maps on your website or use its API to develop custom applications for your business.

Bing is popular with website owners and many users prefer it to Google Map. It is simple use and fast loading and offers a credible alternative to Google map.

3. Mapquest

Google PR- 8
Alexa Rank- 607

MapQuest is a free online web mapping service owned by AOL . MapQuest provides you with useful tools that you can use on their website or embed maps on your website.

The direction finder of MpQuest deserves a special mention. All you need to do enter your starting location e.g. airport, address, city, zip code or state and your ending location. MapQuest then presents you with detailed route including which maneuvers to make until you get to your final destination.

4. Leaflet Cloudmade

Google PR- 6
Alexa Rank- 51895

Although lesser known, this is a great mapping service that offers a simple but snazzy interface. It is a Linux based service which makes it very efficient and fast to load. Leaflet is a modern, lightweight BSD-licensed JavaScript library for making tile-based interactive maps for both desktop and mobile web browsers.

It also has a clean, simple and readable OOP-based code, and it’s hosted on the world’s best open source collaboration platform. Another advantage is its improved support for mobile platforms including iOS and Android.

5. OpenStreetMap

Google PR- 9
Alexa Rank- 6293

OpenStreetMap is an open source mapping service that you can use on your website for free. Founded in July 2004 by Steve Coast, OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world.

With this site, you’ll be able to see a user-generated map of almost every city in the world. Users are encouraged to add information to the map, to make it more accurate and complete. After you sign up, you’ll be able to start adding information to the map.

In terms of usability and features, it still has some way to go to rival Google Map or Bing, but it can be effective for certain specific situations especially as it is available with an open source license.

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There has been much talk about Pinterest in the internet marketing circles. Pinterest, the latest entry to the social media market, has shown great potential and record braking statistics within a relatively short time.

Marketers and businesses across the world have been quick to embrace Pinterest. Although still relatively new, Pinterest has already established itself as a credible internet marketing channel for many businesses throughout the world.

In this article, we take a look at why marketing your business on Pinterest offers better potential  than even Facebook.

Here are 7 reasons why Pinterest is better than Facebook for your business.

1. Pinterest is The Fastest Growing Social Network

Pinterest is the fastest growing social platform today. It has created history by becoming the fastest site to receive its first 10 million users, beating even Facebook and Twitter. With 20 million users, it still has a long way to go to reach Facebook’s 900 million users however this is mainly because Pinterest is still relatively new.

2. Pinterest is More Retail Oriented

Based on statistics it appears that many users use Pinterest primarily for browsing products to buy compared to Facebook which is used primarily for conversations and personal connections.  This makes Pinterest ideal for businesses that want to promote product sales, both online and offline.

3. Pinterest is Better for Showcasing Products

The visual nature of Pinterest offers the perfect opportunity for businesses to showcase their products. It is ideal businesses where the visual appearance plays an important role in purchasing decision of customers e.g. fashion, electronics, food and catering, etc.

4. Pinterest Drives More Sales Referrals than Facebook

Pinterest drives more sales than Facebook, according to a study of social media traffic by Boticca.com. The study found that after integrating ‘pinning’ buttons across its website Pinterest has become its number one social referrer, resulting in almost 10% of total sales, compared to 7% from Facebook.

Similar findings were reported in another study by marketing agency Converto which showed that Pinterest represents 17.4% of social media revenue for e-commerce sites, a figure that was predicted to grow to 40% by 2012.

5. Pinterest  Introduces More New Users to Website

Furthermore, Pinterest drives higher numbers of new customers. The study found that 86% of visits from Pinterest were new first time visitors to the website as compared to 57% from Facebook.

Pinterest tends to introduce new customers to client websites, making it a “Top of Funnel” marketing source. If you measure the big three social media sites on a “First Touch” revenue per click basis, Pinterest is the clear winner.

6. Pinterest Users Spend More Than Facebook Users

The study also indicated that users that arrive from Pinterest spend more than twice as much on average per transaction than users who arrive from Facebook. The bitocca study found that the average spend for Pinterest users was $180 vs. $85 for Facebook users.

7. Pinterest Offers Better Revenue Per Click Than Facebook

According to marketing technology company Convertro, Pinterest is beating established players like Facebook and Twitter in the revenue-per-click category. The study which measured the top three social media websites on a ‘First Touch’ revenue per click basis, found Pinterest to be clear winner, beating Twitter by  more than 400% and Facebook by 27%.

Conclusion:

This article highlights the importance of using Pinterest to market your business. It is however important to note that Pinterest is still relatively new and still has a long way to go before it even comes close to Facebook’s over 900 million user-base. Pinterest should not replace Facebook in your internet marketing strategy but should work side by side. What is important is that you don’t make the mistake of ignoring Pinterest or you risk loosing out to your competitors.

Next Step For Your Business

If you don’t already use Pinterest, create an account today.  Additionally, one of the first things you can do is to is include a Pin button on your website content much like the Facebook Like or Twitter’s ReTweet link.

You can also take advantage of 16 Pinterest Marketing Tips for Your Business.

What about You?

Are you promoting your business using Pinterest ? Do you have “Pin it” button in your website content? What other ways do you think you can use Pinterest to promote your brand and increase your sales? We would like to hear from you. Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below?

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On March 30th 2012, all Facebook pages were converted to  Facebook’s new timeline interface. The new Facebook timeline changes the way content is displayed on your Facebook page. It has also completely changed the way content is displayed as well customisation option s available for your page.

If you are new to the Facebook timeline, you can read how to custom brand your Facebook page using cover photo.

Facebook marketing has become essential for promoting any business on the internet today. Your company’s brand page on Facebook is at the heart of this. Here are 10 Facebook tips that will help you to get more out of your company’s Facebook page.

1. Use Relevant Cover Photo & Profile Image

The introduction of cover photo is one of the most noticeable features of the new Facebook Timeline. The cover photo is a header image of 851px width and 315px height which is displayed at the top of your Facebook page. See image below.

Choosing the right cover photo and profile image is the most important aspect of creating custom branded Facebook page for your business. This is essentially where most of your branding is done. It is however important to note that Facebook terms prevent use of contact information, direct sales or promotions, or call to action such as “click here” or “buy now” in your cover photo.

The profile photo is a square icon of 125px by 125px that is displayed as an inset over the bottom left corner of your Facebook page. This is typically your logo however you can also use it more creatively and use it to complement your cover photo.

2. Create Sticky Post With ‘Pin to Top’ Feature

By default, new posts are displayed at the top of the timeline and older posts are pushed down. However, you can take advantage of ‘Pin to Top’ feature to create a sticky post that will always be displayed at the top of your timeline above every other post. This can prove useful in several ways such as creating an introduction,  promoting a special offer, or other relevant information.

Take a look at “Manchester United Fans” page below. On match days, a match banner is often used as a sticky post.

3. Highlight Important Posts with the Star Feature

Highlighting a post by clicking on the start icon, allows you to give more focus to chosen posts. It also helps break the monotony of the default double column layout of posts.When you highlight a post with a star, it stretches to cover the full width of the page, making the post more prominent.

See image below.

How to Highlight or Make a Post Sticky:

Both options i.e. highlighting using ‘star’ and making a post sti

4. Use CustomTabs and Tab Thumbnail

Facebook also allow you to include up to 12 custom page tabs on your fan page displayed below your cover photo. Each tab, that includes an icon and title, is a link to a particular app or sub-section of your page. The first tab is always for photos by default. The remaining (a maximum of 11 more) can be customised as per your needs.

Tabs work like navigation and offer an excellent way to create a structure for your Facebook page. For example, you can have a custom tab pointing to your products or services, for your Blog, and another call to action such as email sign-up or perhaps an enquiry form.

Choose options carefully to highlight the main areas you wish to target. Use of custom tab icons or thumbnails for each tab helps grab attention as well as improves visual appeal and usability.

5. Take Advantage of Milestones

The new timeline layout of Facebook also lets you create milestones for your fan pages. Milestones can be specific events or dates that are important for your brand e.g. founded, launched, and other important events in your history. You can specify your milestones that can include any dates from the past and associate posts with that.

See image below.

6. Integrate With Twitter

Facebook offers a number of integration features for connecting your Facebook page with Twitter. You can connect Twitter directly from your profile settings or via an app. You can choose to display your tweets in your timeline and even choose to auto-post to your Twitter account.

7. Syndicate Your RSS Feed

If you have a blog, you can easily syndicate your RSS feed using one of the many free apps. Alternatively, you can also syndicate the feed of other external blogs. There are many RSS apps that let you do this. Adding any one to your page  will add a blog tab and retrieve new blogs posts automatically. Most RSS apps also let you choose if new posts should be automatically posted to your timeline. This is a great way to ensure your content is always fresh and up to date.

8. Use Custom URL (Username)

Facebook lets you choose a custom URL for your page once your page has received at least 25 “likes”. Custom URL offers the opportunity choose your brand name or another memorable name as the page address e.g. Facebook.com/your-brand-name. You can do this with the ‘change username’ link in your admin panel.

See image below.

9. Add the Facebook Plugins to Your Website

The more users engage with your content, the better is your overall reach and chances of going viral. One of simplest ways to do this is by using social plugins on your website or blog that make it easy for your website visitors to share your content.

10. Post Quality Content

This may seem obvious but needs to be reinforced nevertheless. The only way to be successful on social media is by sharing quality information with your audience regularly. There are many Facebook posting tips that you can take advantage of.

What Strategies Do You Use on Your Facebook Page?

What methods do you use on your Facebook page to improve results? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below. If you like this post, please share it with others on social media.

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