MediaFirst PR - Atlanta blogs

Video Interview of Jim Caruso on Business Blogging & Blog Marketing

Jim Caruso — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:36:31 +0000

Blog Marketing, Blog SEO, and Blog Writing

Click for the link to the video on YouTube

Today on our Marketing Blog, I'll write and be interviewed on Blog Marketing, Blog SEO, and Blog Writing. I was invited to speak with Bernie Wolford of Buckingham Business Review about blogging.

Our blog reaches our audience of companies interested in Marketing, PR, and Social Media for lead generation. Here, we've been recognized as one of the top social media blogs, although this is also B2B Blogging focused, covering blog marketing, blog SEO, blog writing, social media blogs, and general blogging for business.

This video starts at the beginning, but covers the fact that blogs attract online audiences. You target customers can be attracted by good content, backed by an understanding of the search terms that buyers are likely to use. I say buyers, because you can use high traffic search terms, but the important terms for SEO are the one that your prospective buyers will use.

An Introduction to Online Marketing Strategies

Becky Boyd — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:50:39 +0000

If you are a newbie in the online marketing world, this is for you. In your search for information you will read many tips to get the most out of your online marketing. You also need to understand that online marketing is not a walk in the park. It is important for you to read as much as possible to learn and apply what you know.

There are many strategies to get visitors to your website. Blogging is one of the best things you can do to get traffic to your website. All you need to do is write on a regular basis in your blog. Make sure that you are consistent and write keyword rich content. This way, you will attract visitors from the search engines. The reason to do this is that search engines need to know what your webpage or post is all about. It is essential for your success as a blogger to talk about all the aspects of the topics in your blog posts. If you skim over a theme, your audience will lose interest and eventually you will drop your rankings for your posts.

Article marketing is another popular strategy that must be part of your web-marketing plan. Articles are a great way to get backlinks and traffic for your posts or web pages. Backlinks are important because it is a way that search engines determine your relevance to the search term. It is advisable to make sure that you write an article of at least 500 words to be accepted by most article directories.

The next step in article marketing is getting the right article distribution services. Unique Article Wizard and iSnare are services that you can use to distribute your article on the Net. Free Article Submission is a tracking tool that will allow you to manage your article directory submissions and stop submitting to the same article directories over and over.

These are some of the common and basic strategies you can use to take your online marketing to the next level. If you or your company would like to discuss an in depth strategy or discuss customized solutions, please contact me at quique@mediafirst.net

What is your Public Relations Strategy?

Becky Boyd — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:13:50 +0000

Public relations is used in managing how information moves between an organization and the public. It makes use of a number of public relations strategies to control the disbursement of various types of information to the public with the aim of convincing them about various issues concerning a company, or an individual, or a company's products and services.

There are many public relations strategies that have been used over the years. Some of them include knowing the market. This is basically concerned with being in the know about developments that happen in a company's market. You should know what is making news and be able to act appropriately for the benefit of the client. It is also very important that you consider monitoring the web as a public relations strategy. This is a very helpful strategy if used because it allows a company to be informed about what people are saying about its products in various blogs in the web. It is helpful to monitor these conversations and to implement any change of messaging and other strategies that will create favorable comments.

The other public relations strategy that you can use is employing the services of the media. The media is one of the most used public relations tools as it covers a large area thus making it easy for information to be disbursed. It is therefore advised that a company should maintain good ties to the media as this will play a major role when it comes to running campaigns.

The use of technology in public relations is also another important public relations strategy, though it has been ignored by many players in the public relations field. Various technology developments, especially in the social media, are constantly being developed. Most social media outlets have a vast audience and massive number of users, making it an easy and quick way to spread your messages.

Some Cool Stats About Pinterest & Why You Should Care

Becky Boyd — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:35:24 +0000

In the last few months, interest in Pinterest, the social media site that lets you "pin" images onto a virtual corkboard, has flown off the charts. Pinterest is as addictive as other social media sites; maybe even more because more people like the visual aspects of Pinterest.

From December 2011 to January 2012, unique visitors to Pinterest.com increased by 155 percent.
7M unique visitors registered in December alone.
According to a recent study, Pinterest pulls more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined.
More people spend time “pinning” than connecting with their friends on Facebook.
In the past six months, the social sharing tool has mber ogone from effectively non-existent to one of the top 100 sites on the web (and is on track to break into Alexa’s Top 50).
Pinterest is retaining and engaging users as much as 2-3x as efficiently as Twitter was at a similar time in its history.
Pins link to a tremendously large universe of sites. Etsy is the most popular source of pin content, but it only represents about 3% of pins.
Over 80% of pins are re-pins, demonstrating the tremendous virality at work in the Pinterest community. To contrast, a study done at a similar time in Twitter’s history showed that only about 1.4% of tweets were retweets.

So, what can you do on Pinterest?

Pinterest will provide links back to your website, increasing the number of unique visitors to your site. One of my clients, KooKoo Bear Kids now receives 25-50 visitors to their site a day via Pinterest.
You can connect Pinterest to your Twitter and Facebook accounts allowing you to easily get followers.
You can create a catalog of your products. Create boards around a product type, such as Baby Shower Gifts, and pin your products to the board.

RJMetrics researched the top-level domain of external links that each pin ties back. They found tremendous long-tail effects. In their sample of about a million pins, over 100,000 distinct source domains existed. These include etsy.com as the number one source, followed by Google, Flickr, Tumbler, Weheartit, MarthaStewart, Polyvore, and BHG.com.

The bottom line is that Pinterest demonstrates some of the strongest user engagement, retention, and virality metrics ever seen in an online business. The company has found tremendous success among its core demographic, which are women between the ages of 20 and 40. But, even if that is not your target audience, you should jump on Pinterest because its growth and interest level can push any web site to the top of the search engines.

Want To Add A Blog To Your Marketing Mix? Here Are Quick Tips On Blog Marketing

QuiQue Lopez — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Here are Couple of Simple Blog Marketing Strategies to Consider

If your goal is to monetize traffic and increase sales from your blog, then consider these blogging strategies to get more out of your website. The best thing that you can do for your blog is keep your content engaging, so that your visitors will keep coming back for more. Engagement and activity, like comments, attract search engines and improve your website ranking.

There are different types of blogging strategies that you can use to attract an audience to your website, but keep in mind that you will need to find a way to connect with your readers. These basic tactics, that you can incorporate into your blog right away, will pay off in traffic and leads:

1-Keywords:

Select and experiment with different ways to connect with your readers by using keywords that will help you target a specific audience, and what they are looking for on the Internet.

Use the Google Keyword Tool to find high-ranking keywords and terms that Internet users enter when they search. You can keep track of how often a keyword or term is searched for every month and then write your blog content around your researched keywords. Not only will you attract more readers to your blog, you will also attract the attention of search engines when your content is well-written and built around high-ranking keywords.

The most important step here is to choose keywords and keyword phrases that your prospective customer will use when searching on the web. It may even be easier to rank high for these than it is to rank for the highest traffic, most popular keywords.

2-Lead Capture:

Lead capturing techniques can help you to connect with your readers and build a relationship with them. Include lead capture information on your blog like banners, buttons, anchor tex, and opt-in boxes. Your goal should be to get contact information from web visitors in the form of email addresses. This lets you build a relationship with drip, email nurturing campaigns or when they subscribe to your email newsletter. Use the visitor’s email information as a part of your marketing plan. Auto responders and the drip, nurturing email campaigns help build a relationship with your readers and help you stay connected with them. You get multiple opportunities to sell them the products and services that you offer on your blog.

Every business is different needs and needs a blogging strategy that supports your company’s other marketing initiatives. If you would like to discuss your blog or are thinking about introducing a blog into your marketing mix, please let us know. We would be very happy to give assistance. Call me at 678-391-9136 or email Quique@mediafirst.net

10 Free SEO Tips To Improve Web Traffic

Wil Caruso — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 02:35:33 +0000

As we all know, getting more web traffic is a good thing if you want your business to grow and gain revenue. However, not everyone knows that some of the best ways to get more web traffic are free.

Here are 10 free ways that you can increase your website traffic:

1) Directories: Directory Listings

A directory is a place where your company information is available to see for everyone and if they're interested they will click on your website. DMOZ.org is one of the best known free directories.

2) Link Exchange

Link exchange is when two companies exchange links with each other, and help boost both of their SEO ranking. Its best if both of the companies are similar.

3) Alliance Partner Websites: Including Suppliers, Resellers, Technology Providers, etc.

This is link exchange with a partner. Many companies, large and small with partner programs, offer you a listing that includes a link to your website.

4) Article Submission: Submit to Websites That Aggregate Content

Write an article under your own name and get it published on content aggregation websites, which accept any article and where they link back to your website.

5) Bylined Articles: Articles Written By You, Featured In An Industry Magazine, Online Or In Print

Write an article under your own name and get it published in a real magazine or on a blog where they link back to your website.

6) Posting On Other Blogs: Post A Useful Comment Or Observation & Leave A Link Back To Your Site

When you post on another blog, in many cases (and if you are not spammy) you can leave a link back to your website.

7) Location Based Services (LBS)

Go onto different applications like Google Places and Google Latitude, Foursquare, Yelp, Facebook check-in, and submit a link to your website.

8) Association Membership Listings

Join an association, because Associations often have directories of members that include a link to your website.

9) Free Press Release Sites

Although paid press releases, issued over a wire service give you greater credibility and better links. These do create links.

10) Guest Blog: Write A Post For Another, Industry Blog & Get A Link Back

Write an article for another blog and get them to link back to you.

There You Are, 10 Free Tips For SEO To Raise Search Rank

Now, these are free, in that they don't cost you any fee. However, they do cost somebody time and effort. In addition, you need to know how to do all of these, such as what sites accept article submissions or what magazine would like to have your bylined article.

The author, Wil Caruso, is a marketing intern at MediaFirst. He is blogging to support websites running WordPress; Drupal, like this site; and Hubspot (this site runs the Hubspot tracking code). Wil is a student of Japanese and Judo. Email him at wil@mediafirst.net or call him at 770.642.2080.

Terms: 10 Free SEO Tips, 10 free ways, Free SEO Tips, Improve Web Traffic, SEO Tips, Web Traffic

JumpStart Inbound Marketing & Lead Generation

jimcaruso — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 04:33:58 +0000

<p>Many clients want to get their inbound marketing efforts off to a strong start, writing blog content and Lead Nurturing Email campaigns. Blogging, offers (giveaways), Calls-To-Action, and Landing Pages comprise best practices for online lead generation. For success, you need to deliver blog posts regularly.

Your Inbound Marketing initiative needs:

Project manager overseeing writers, delivering on time, and implementing graphics and layout
Senior staff with experience writing website content, blog posts, and press releases
A review of keywords to assure that these are buyer keywords for targeted segments
Content ideas for approval as proposed titles, keywords, or drip campaigns for the buyer(s)
Case Studies in an easily readable format that is as appealing as a blog post
Emails for Lead Nurturing, Marketing Automation that guides prospects through the sales funnel
Interviews of your staff or customers for blog and case study content with customer quotes
A Call-To-Action (CTA) paired with an offer (giveaway) for lead capture and email nurturing
Additional CTAs that are Bottom-of-the-Funnel, for prospects that are ready to buy now
Landing Page paired with a Lead Capture Form that asks for enough info, but not too much
SEO Meta tags: Alt text, keywords, and description to accompany a blog post or landing page

Author, Jim Caruso, discusses inbound marketing for lead generation. B2B companies leverage internet marketing using the analytics and methodology provided by Hubspot. MediaFirst is a Hubspot Certified Partner. If you need help, call 770.642.2080 and MediaFirst can help you get started.

Elementary Social Media Strategies for the Business Owner: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and others

QuiQue Lopez — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 04:13:33 +0000

As a business owner, marketing your business today can be both costly and time consuming, and with social media strategies now becoming a major factor in your marketing effectiveness, you can no longer afford to ignore the impact this could have on your business.

There are many demands on your time in a day, and ensuring you stay up to date with what your clients and prospective clients are saying about you in the social media sphere is important on lots of different levels.

Many non-technical business people dismiss social media as not being important, and it is the business owner who suffers in the long term as their business becomes totally unresponsive to the viral nature and feedback of social networks.

Staying in touch with your clients, interacting on the social blogs, and social networks, while time consuming is imperative. I recommend devoting a specific time during your day to social media, even if it is only for half an hour in the morning before your business begins operations. This time can become an important part of your overall social media strategy by discovering what people and clients of your business are saying about you. It provides you the opportunity to respond, and provide your own feedback.

Gone are the days, where all communication was a one way street, and one bad customer couldn't really hurt your business. These days the businesses that are growing and prospering are those that show they are interacting with their customers. These have defined social media strategies, show concern about their customers’ thoughts, and respond promptly - are now prospering. Whether your tactics involve the use of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, or others… you need to become involved! It doesn’t have to take over your life. Definitely restrict the amount of time you spend on social networks, but don't pretend it is not effective or important. Ignoring social media in your business is tantamount to committing business suicide, especially these days.

For expert help in developing a sound social media strategy for your business contact me at quique@mediafirst.net or call me at 678-391-9136.

The author, QuiQue Lopez, directs business growth strategies and is a respected advisor to business owners.

7 Reasons Your SEO Efforts Fail

jimcaruso — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:43:38 +0000

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms sell snake oil. Unfortunately, that is how it looks to lots of us, customers of the SEO firm. These are all real issues that I've seen over many years.

Here are the 7 reasons your SEO spend is ineffective:

1.) Search Engines Rank Pages, Not Websites

Remember that Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines rank individual pages, not your website as a whole.

If your SEO company builds links to your home page, but never to the pages for your products or services, these pages will never rank highly in comparison to your competitor's product and services pages.

SEO Companies need to offer optimization that drives traffic to your product and service pages. Although I'm not going to discuss online lead generation in this blog post, be aware that each of your pages need a Call-To-Action (CTA) that will capture leads from visitors.

2.) Your Website Can't Be Found By The Search Engines

Ever see a really beautiful website? Gorgeous website, appealing graphics, lovely video, etc?

If the site is built entirely in Adobe Flash or Flex, it is possible that the website has absolutely no text. Believe it or not, this still happens. My friend Scott was working with a company just last year. The guy had real web traffic and good revenues from his old ugly site, but had it rebuilt. The new site was pretty, but had no text. No text, means that search engine, such as Google, can't see the site, at all, nada, for real.

Rather than beat this into the ground, understand that text on your website is the primary factor that drives traffic via search.

3.) You Annoy Web Visitors, Maybe With Too Much Video, A Culturally Inappropriate Look, or The Wrong Industry Terms

These are really 3 issues. There are other examples of angering web visitors, like making navigation or search difficult.

Video and motion: Does your video play automatically? Are there 3 or 4 videos or animations that play simultaneously? Did a non-industry person or the wrong person write the text? My favorite example is that in the utility industry for wires attached to poles, telephone companies use the term aerial plant, while electric utilities use the term overhead plant.

You website should be pleasant to use and useful for the visitor.

4.) The Wrong Keywords, Such As High Traffic Keywords Rather Than Your Buyer's Or Customer's Keyword

Buyer Keywords are the words that your buying prospect will use to find your website and your products or services. It can be very difficult to compete with the high traffic keywords, yet these may not bring buyers. What is your buyer searching? For us, it includes the terms: agency, firm, and company.

Competing for the wrong keywords wastes your time and money on search engine optimization, but worse than that it can cause you to spend on advertising for these same, incorrect, sub-optimal keywords.

5.) Low Quality Links From Link-Building

One great way to raise the search engine rank of any page is to build links. My best links come from alliance partners, suppliers, industry directories, and the websites that I built that are ten (10) years old.

There are lots of link-builders with terrible, low ranking directories that generate visitors that will never buy. These can confuse you into believing that you are building more traffic, when this traffic has no value.

6.) Bad Content, Bad Writing

This is similar to the issue of using the wrong industry terms in written text. Good content is clear, helps your reader, honestly reveals truths, and is worth sharing among co-workers and friends.

Writing has a tone, a voice. It becomes the voice of your company. Is it conversational or formal? Which suits your reader? Readability, in part, is the grade-level-equivalence of your writing. For example, many newspapers write for 8th grade readers. However, if you are writing about optimization or economics or finance, chances are you will have difficulty keeping it down to 12th or college-level, which is fine. The business reader, technology geek, or automobile enthusiast will know and understand the terminology of the industry. We have this issue all the time with tech software firms and supply chain optimization clients.

7) Failing To Leverage Social Networks & Social Media

Sharing your content over social media, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can carry your story far beyond your website. While at a conference in Denmark, I sat a a lunch table with a group of web guys. One knew of me and followed me on Twitter, amazing.

There are many tools that will share your content, such as blog posts, directly from your website, even as they go live. In addition, sharing buttons, such as Google plus one "+1," Facebook "Like," Twitter, and email sharing let visitors send your content to colleagues and friends.

Link shorteners, such as bit.ly, transparently pass SEO credit to your website. Bit.ly Pro offers the ability to view your traffic.

Just do it. Share your content and make it easy for others to share from your website.

SxSW 2012: Meet me there - SxSW, Event, Conference - South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi)

jimcaruso — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:20:42 +0000

Connect At South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi)

You can reach your audience at SxSW, MediaFirst can help. SxSW. Programs of pre-conference publicity and on-the-ground tactics grow awareness, establish alliances, and win new business.

This blog post summarizes some tactics for:

Pre-conference publicity,
Exhibiting at the trade show, and
Connecting with your audience, bloggers, and the media.

At SxSW Conferences, we generated leads, established alliance partnerships, and got press coverage:

Attended South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi) conference for theseveral years
Recommended that clients consider exhibiting, it is reasonable
We've worked in the client's booth, generating leads
Evangelized a second client's technologies, finding alliance partners
We are experienced in scheduling press/media/blogger interviews at trade shows
we give you a briefing book, listing press appointments, background, and topic ideas

We will have staff at SxSW, available to facilitate interviews, help with events, or get leads.

NOTE: In 2012, SxSW registration is Thursday 8 MAR. Exhibits are only Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - overlapping the Interactive and Music parts of SxSW. Interactive attendees, the target audience, leave by Wednesday. All appointments should be targeted for Monday or Tuesday.

Leverage your Exhibitor status at SxSW to obtain the list of pre-registered media and bloggers = people with press credentials at SxSW.

PRE-SxSW:

Get the pre-registered press attendee list at SxSW.
Create pitches, get interviews leading to press coverage.
Set up interviews, appointments, or demos at SxSW.
Pitch to media outlets covering or attending SxSW, maybe Mashable, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, etc.
Pitch to people who review new technologies, some do video interviews of firms, such as start-ups.
Write and issue press releases (wire service fee is about $300 each). Launch, funding, customer, etc.
Schedule appointments: bloggers, press/media, experts, and the audience. Also reach out to the "Social Media gurus," but get to the people who gain the most from your product or service.

AT SxSW:

Create and deliver a "Media Briefing Book" that lists your appointments with the media and bloggers
Be on-the-ground at SxSW to see that appointments happen as scheduled
Attend targeted audience presentations at SxSW and evangelize your technologies, products or services
Find events at SxSW that include the target blogs/bloggers, media outlets, or audiences
If giving demos at the event, get the right "Buns-In-Seats" - in the booth for a demo: reporters, bloggers, your audiences

What is Content Marketing?

Becky Boyd — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:12:11 +0000

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Every great piece of content has a content mapping strategy behind it. Just writing a press release or a nice blog post simply isn’t enough. There has to be a strategy behind the content or else nobody is going to see it. Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent.

So, what kind of content should you be using in your content marketing efforts? Content Marketing covers everything from blog posts to tweets to press release generation. You need to have a strategic plan behind your content marketing to make sure you are generating the right content for the right audience. Here’s a list of content marketing techniques you can use.

Blogs – You must create blog posts that your target audience wants to read and you must blog often. This not only helps with creating customers and building loyalty, but it helps with search engine optimization (SEO).

Press Releases - Press releases are one of the oldest forms of content marketing and they also help with SEO. You need to be consistent in issuing press releases that are news worthy, say at least one per month. When you issue a press release over the news wire, you also need to push it out to various social media channels. Join LinkedIn Groups and add your press release to their Promotion Sections. Tweet about your release. Add it to Google+ and Facebook pages. Send your press releases directly to reporters that cover your beat. Also send it to “friends” of your business, which can be partners, industry analysts, and customers. Also make sure you have an online newsroom so your release is easy to find on your website.

Email Newsletters – Newsletters are a great form of marketing content that can communicate now only your business news, but can summarize customer case studies, detail industry issues, and promote events. Newsletters should be sent out monthly on a consistent basis. We use MailChimp to issue our email newsletters. MailChimp helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, send them to your mail list, and track your results.

Social Media – Posting to your social media channels is an effective way to engage in content marketing. Make sure your daily posts link back to your website so you build traffic to it. Remember that only 1 in 10 posts should be self-promoting. The other posts should address industry issues, customer news, new products, company news, events, etc. Make sure your posts engage with your audience, i.e. inviting them to comment or retweet. Have buttons on your homepage that connect to your various social media outlets so it is easy for site visitors to find them.

If you do these things you are well on your way to establishing an effective content marketing strategy that will boost your site in the search engines, engage with your audience, and generate leads for your business.

Why You Should Have A Blog | MediaFirst Blog | Wil Caruso

Wil Caruso — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:42:59 +0000

Many Have A Company Blog Or Personal Blog

You may have noticed that many companies have started to blog seriously. There is good reason for it, too. As everyone starts to use the internet for marketing, you need to ways for people to find you and want to come back. Having a blog has many benefits for your company, cause, or whatever you are trying to promote.

Here is a few reasons why you should have a blog:

A blog gives potential consumers a reason to come back

Having a blog which is being updated frequently gives people a reason to keep coming back to your site. When you are constantly providing content , people are more interested in investing time into you.

Having a blog will increase your Google page rank

When you have a blog, you will put out a lot of keywords that google will use to rank your page helping people find it. When you have many blog posts it will help bring more people to your website.

Gets people involved

Having a blog that is informative and interactive is key, you want people to be involved with your company and develop a bond with you. Having people comment on your blog will also show you who's interested in your content, and responding to blog comments instills a sense of trust and credibility to your potential consumers.

It will help you learn more about your own field

When writing a blog post you always want to provide the best quality content you can, because your credibility is on the line. Even though you already know almost all the information you are posting about, you will do extra research about it too and see others opinions on it. Also when writing down what you already know also helps you learn it better yourself.

These days, having a blog is essential, key to having a successful business. Without a blog you are missing out on a lot of web traffic, and only hurting yourself. Blogs are no longer just for people with hobbies , they are great business tool for getting attention and support. Do yourself a favor and have one.

Your blog will generate leads

Today, yes literally today, we got a lead because our MediaFirst blog was recognized as a "Top 10 Social Media Blogs: The 2012 Winners!"

by the Social Media Examiner. The lead wasn't even for blogging, but for awards and award opportunity management. Our Hubspot dashboard tracked the source of the inbound traffic from the website SocialMediaExaminer.com. Blogging creates interest, proves what you know, and shows people that you can help.

Select MediaFirst For all your marketing needs, call 770.642.2080.

Guidelines & Thoughts on Posting Photos, Images & Video to Your Firm's Facebook Page

jimcaruso — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:08:17 +0000

Guidelines & Thoughts on Posting Photos, Images & Video to Your Firm's Facebook Page

Carefully, add images to the "Products" photo album. Make sure the image is clear and add explanatory descriptors properly. No duplicate photos or videos.

Photo Albums:

- Each Album gets a "description"

- Each image can have a "comment"

- If a person is in the image, they can be tagged, "Tag This Photo"

- If appropriate, a photo can have a location, "Add Location"

Videos still need this:

- get a Title

- get a Description

- If appropriate, a photo can have a location, "Add Location"

Consider additional "Photo Albums," maybe including photos from customer locations, especially for separate products, services or initiatives, such as pro bono work your company does.

- It may be that we want each product, service or application area to have a page, paralleling the Titles in the Menu of the website.

We need to make sure we add a text to every image or video, correctly identifying it for the benefit of visitors.

- Correct product name

- Correct Application name

- Customer, if permitted and to your company's advantage

- Current offerings, profitable items

Tags: Facebook Guidelines, Facebook Video, Company Facebook Page, Company Facebook Pages

20 Plus Things Getting Publicity Can Do For You

Becky Boyd — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:42:36 +0000

Some today think PR is dead. It is not; it has just changed and significantly. PR, marketing, lead generation, SEO, social media – these activities are all blending into what I call the new marketing matrix. Here’s what getting publicity, either via a press release, social media, blog, or whatever, can do for you and your business:

Establishes you as an expert and thought leader in your field
Create a strong brand so that prospects will think of your brand first
Elevates your status among peers
Improves SEO and rises your company in search engine rankings
Helps to push prospects on the fence over to a buying customer
Increase credibility, making customers want to work with you for the long haul
Helps people to find your website and be more ready to buy
Gives a third party endorsement of you, your products, and services
Boosts you above the competition
Increases awareness of your thought leadership and knowledge among the media
More publications and media outlets want to cover you
Partners and vendors want to work with you more
Investors are attracted to your company
Potential employees want to work for you; current employees are happier to represent you and your brand
You’re invited to speak at conferences and workshops
You’re invited to be a Featured Speaker at a leading industry conference
Industry analysts and other experts want to engage with you and your company
New markets open up for you and your company
You drive traffic to your site from new sources
People, such as industry analysts, clients, and prospects, pay more attention to you, your messages, and your offerings
Garner awards and get listed on Top Lists
Prospects you contact recognize your company and your name

How the Social Web is Evolving - Pinterest

Becky Boyd — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:55:55 +0000

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard and it allows you to easily organize and share pictures, video, graphics, and more that you find on the web. Users “pin” images they find on the web to their Pinterest board, sharing them with their followers. Every image on a user’s Pinboard is hyperlinked to the original source, helping to drive traffic from Pinterest to external sites. People are using Pinterest to create boards that help them plan their weddings, decorate their homes, design wardrobes, and more.

So how can a business use Pinterest?

Take for example our client, KooKoo Bear Kids, an online, catalog, and retail merchant of designer kids’ rooms, bedding, accessories, and unique gifts. I decided to “play” with Pinterest and created 6 “boards” for KooKoo Bear Kids: Baby Cribs, Baby Rooms, Kids’ Strollers, Chandeliers, Wall Art, and Baby Shower Gifts. Boards are created, usually around a topic or category, from “pins.” Pins are an image added to Pinterest. A pin can be added from a website using the Pin It button, or you can upload images from your computer. Each pin added using the Pin It button links back to the site it came from. Within 1 day of creating the boards for KooKoo Bear, I had 435 followers, repins, and likes. Wow! That was fast!

Pinterest is how the social web is evolving. There is so much content being created and shared that it is getting harder to make sense of it all. Content Curation Platforms, like Pinterest, make it easy for us to categorize content or images that we like, then share them with our extended “social” family and friends. These new tools marry the social graph and interest graph.

Per ReadWriteWeb, “a social graph is a digital map that says, ‘This is who I know.’ It may reflect people who the user knows in various ways: as family members, work colleagues, peers met at a conference, high school classmates, fellow cycling club members, friend of a friend, etc. Social graphs are mostly created on social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, where users send reciprocal invites to those they know, in order to map out and maintain their social ties. An interest graph is a digital map that says, ‘This is what I like.’ They are generated by the feeds customers follow (e.g. on Twitter), products they buy (e.g. on Amazon), ratings they create (e.g. on Netflix), searches they run (e.g. on Google), or questions they answer about their tastes (e.g. on services like Hunch).”

Using content curation platforms like Pinterest should conform to your integrated marketing strategy objectives and be aimed at your target audience. Pinterest has a heavy presence of women aged 25 – 44, making it a perfect audience for companies targeting that demographic.

Before you set up a presence on Pinterest, make sure you have a compelling story in images to tell.
Don’t just pin, repin.
Let your supporters pin for you.
Add “pin it” buttons to your blog or web site so your visitors can create their own pin boards and share your products with their network of friends.
Measure results of a Pinterest campaign by using analytical solutions to see where your web traffic is coming from and whether there has been an increase from posting on this platform.

4 Competencies of Highly Effective Inbound Marketing Agencies

Becky Boyd — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:59:05 +0000

Inbound Marketing combines great content and website engagement that forms a superior foundation for sales and marketing efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, and revenue growth. Shifting from outbound to inbound marketing provides accelerated return on investment (ROI).

Today’s CMOs are shifting marketing dollars from traditional outbound methods such as PR and e-mail marketing to online tactics like blogging, social media, content marketing and more. While these tactics work exceptionally, they require time and internal resources. The answer is to outsource these needs to an inbound marketing agency that can use its deep online experience to help companies and businesses increase their online visibility and lead generation efforts.

There are 4 competencies that an inbound marketing agency must meet.

1) Ability to Generate Traffic to Website: Inbound marketing agencies generate traffic to your website through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), blogging, and social media campaigns.

2) Ability to Generate Premium Content: Inbound marketing agencies develop premium, engaging, targeted content that capitalizes on web traffic by building landing pages, offering calls to action, and managing online lead generation efforts.

3) Ability to Construct Lead-Nurturing Campaigns: Inbound marketing agencies offer targeted lead-nurturing campaigns that convert leads into customers.

4) Analysis and Measurement Capabilities: Inbound marketing agencies must be able to analyze the results of online efforts on a regular basis and repeat successes while fine-tuning campaigns to get better results.

INSIGHT Lands Wall Street Journal Coverage for Issues-Based Press Release

Becky Boyd — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:57:57 +0000

Press releases are not a dying breed as some of the media reports. Editors and reporters receive hundreds of press releases each day, yet often these are not targeted to the beat the reporter covers, so they are quickly trashed.

The press release is not dead – PR agencies just have to make sure the news is newsworthy.

Still, press releases are more likely to be read if they contain info on a customer. But wait - what do you do when you have a client who has customers who won’t talk to the media so they won’t discuss their use of the goods and services your client provides?

Try creating an issues-based press release! These are press releases that address an industry issue, such as a current event or economic outlet.

NOTE: We've been doing this for more than ten (10) years, but David Meerman Scott just wrote a book on it called "Newsjacking."

When the Japanese earthquake and tsunami hit in March 2011, we issued a press release for our client INSIGHT, Inc., who offers strategic supply chain planning solutions. Companies use these solutions to design and manage their supply chains, the interconnecting functions that span all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption. The press release, entitled, “Supply Chains In Japan Suffer Huge Disruptions Due to Lack of Strategic Supply Chain Plans & Vulnerability Analyses” detailed how companies need to prepare their supply chains for disasters.

“Infrastructure has been severely compromised in Japan which, in turn, impacts the ability to both manufacture and distribute,” says Dr. Jeff Karrenbauer, president of INSIGHT, Inc. “Even if companies have stockpiled parts, it will be a long time before product flow is back to normal in Japan, so these inventories will eventually be depleted. Therefore, companies need to have a strategic supply chain plan in place that mitigates the impact of disruptions. Possible components of the plan include inventory positioning, alternative sourcing, transportation options and so on.”

After we issued the press release, the Wall Street Journal interviewed Dr. Karrenbauer for an article entitled “Crisis Tests Supply Chain’s Weak Links” by James Hookway: “The political turmoil in the Mideast and North Africa, Iceland's volcanic eruption last year and China's move in September to restrict exports of rare-earth materials should have put companies on notice. "Heightened risks and outright disruptions are coming at us at a furious pace and it is absolutely critical that firms be prepared with detailed contingency plans," Jeff Karrenbauer, president of Insight Inc., a Virginia-based consulting firm specializing in supply chains, wrote recently.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206170102048018.html?KEYWORDS=James+Hookway

Thirteen trade publications developed stories around the press release after speaking with Dr. Karrenbauer. Plus Jeff participated in an NPR radio show on supply chain problems in Japan and he was asked to give an educational lecture on this topic at the Accenture Supply Chain School. However, the best thing that came out of issuing this press release is that INSIGHT received dozens of leads for companies looking to secure their supply chains.

Tags: PR Agencies, Press Release, Wall Street Journal, Press Coverage, Issue-Based Press Release, David Meerman Scott, Newsjacking

Gartner Analysts Research The Social Media Market – Grows to $7.25B

Becky Boyd — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:58:58 +0000

According to a Gartner Analyst report, the size of the Social Media market grew to $7.25B, with a B! If you aren’t using social media, you need to be. Per Gartner, “In the next two years, the growing demand for advertising on social networking sites will bridge the gap between the cost per click on Facebook and that on other websites.”

Facebook is the largest player in the social media market, with a 30% revenue market share. However, LinkedIn is gaining in popularity, along with Google, whose social media position has been boosted with Google+.

Gartner breaks down social media revenue into:

Advertising sales of display ads contribute to 61% of overall revenue.
Gaming – contributes 25% of revenue for social media; growing sector.
Subscription Revenue – some professional networking sites like LinkedIn charge a subscription fee for advanced services.
Other – revenue from paid applications like music, virtual wallets, etc. This sector will grow with social TV and other social experiences.

Gartner estimates worldwide page views for YouTube in 2010 to be 875 billion and that the company earns 99.5% of its revenues from ads.

If you are focusing on an International Market, you might want to know that the top 5 social media sites worldwide are:

Facebook – 30%
Mobage (Japan) – 15%
YouTube – 13%
Gree (Japan) – 7%
Ozone (China) – 7%
Others – 28%

Per Gartner’s report, “In 2010 social sites began to earn increased ad revenue. As marketers transition from one-time placement and clicking of ads toward ongoing engagement with Internet users, more brands will consider advertising on these sites and a higher percentage of their budget will be allocated to them. A lot also depends on the percentage of engaged users that any website has, as marketers will spend ad dollars where they can be assured the maximum number of ‘eyeballs.’”

The breakdown for the amount of time spent per week on social networking sites is: 13% >10hrs., 22% <30 min., 29% 30 min. – 1 hr., 18% 1 – 5 hrs., and 18% 5-10 hrs.

Gartner adds, “The industry is now preparing for the next phase — social ubiquity — in which consumers are almost constantly connected and aware of each other's locations and needs. Social ubiquity will empower consumers in new ways. They will be influenced by — and will influence — real-time information, contextual data and social factors that go beyond the physical sphere into the virtual.”

Facebook apps that will help your fan page

Wil Caruso — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:59:59 +0000

Everyone from large businesses to local shops have a Facebook fan page now. You constantly find another business using a Facebook fan page to promote themselves. Having a Facebook fan page is a great way to get noticed and market yourself. If you want to have a successful fan page you will need some apps that will help you manage and communicate with your fans. In this blog post we're going to discuss the best apps to use that will help your fan page:

1) Hubspot: Hubspot is a inbound marketing software which helps you get found by more people and helps generate leads. To learn more about how this can help your fan page go here -> http://www.hubspot.com/ebooks/facebook-page-marketing-ebook-2011/

2) Twitter feed (involver): This app displays a twitter feed on your Facebook fan page, which allows your fans to stay up to date with your tweets even if they don't follow you on twitter. You can install this from here- http://involver.com/applications/

3) RSS feed: This app displays blog posts from your website on your Facebook page. This is a great app to use because it connects your blog to your Facebook fan page, which will help increase traffic to your website. You can install this from here- http://involver.com/applications/

4) MailChimp: Mailchimp allows you to collect the names of people who wants to get a newsletter from you. With this you can give your subscribers a newsletter with a bunch of options. You can go here to install it- http://apps.facebook.com/mailchimp/

5) Youtube: With this app you can directly share all of your youtube videos with your Facebook fan page. You can install this from here- http://involver.com/applications/

6) Contactme: This app makes it easy for your fans and prospective customers to get in contact with you. You can install Contactme at- www.facebook.com/contactforms

7) Scribd- This app allows you to easily upload PDF, DOC, XLS, JPG, and PPT files. This is a great app if you want to share documents with fans. You can install it here- http://apps.facebook.com/involver_epdmxwnq/

8) Ecwid- This app allows you to display your products you are selling from your website or store directly on your fan page, and is even integrated with paypal to allow fast transactions. To learn more go here- www.ecwid.com

With these Facebook applications , you will increase the connection you have with your fans and keep them up to date with everything you wish to share with them.

For all of your marketing needs,

MediaFirst

Tags: Facebook apps, fan page, Hubspot, Twitter Feed, Involver, RSS Feed, MailChimp, YouTube, ContactMe, Scribd, ecwid, Facebook Fan Page

Blog Post Guidelines - The Secret Sauce

jimcaruso — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:56:13 +0000

Note: This is really an internal document, but I felt it might be helpful to you. This outlines what goes into a blog post for the agency. Since, we build websites, we know that how and what you write is a critical success factor (CSF) for helping your readers.

GOAL:

We want MediaFirst.net to get high Google search ranking (top 10) for the terms used by buyers of our services, these terms include the singular and plural, long and short forms of phrases that describe our firm, such as: "PR Agency," "Public Relations Firms," or "Tech PR Company." Note that these phrases end in "Agency," "Firm," and "Company."

We want to be known as a source of services for PR, Marketing, Social Media, and Inbound Marketing (Online Marketing).

There are a great number of keyword phrases that we target, which includes the "long-tail" keyword phrases that buyers might use to find MediaFirst, such as "Digital Agency," "Digital PR Firm," "Local Marketing Company," "Social Media Marketing Agency," and "Internet Marketing Company."

TARGET

AUDIENCE:

Business. Our target client is a privately-owned corporation or business from small business to medium-sized corporation.

We target an audience, readers, who are corporate executives, business owners, marketing directors and staff, public relations professionals, or those involved in social media.

BLOG POST

TITLE:

I offer a suggested title. You have the option of offering an alternate title that employs a keyword or keywords. If you chose to write this, place this at the beginning of the piece, labeled "TITLE," if needed for clarity.

KEYWORDS:

I supply 10 keywords. I prefer that you use all 10. Place the keywords that you used at the end of the piece, labeled as "KEYWORDS:..."

SUMMARY (META DESCRIPTION FOR GOOGLE):

Please include a Meta Description of 150 characters or less. This is for the "Meta Description" that displays when the article shows up in web search, such as a Google search result. 150 Place this at the end of the piece labeled as "META: ..."

DENSITY:

I request that in your writing that you attain a Keyword Density of greater than five percent [ > 5%]. Keyword density increases as you use each and every keyword, particularly including them in both the body of the piece and any title, subtitles, or bullet point lists.

REFERENCE

Buyer Keywords:

We especially want to get high search ranking for what I call "buyer keywords," which are the search phrases used by prospective customers trying to find a company like MediaFirst.

Social Networks:

The primary social media networks should be: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr & YouTube.

Tags: Blog Post Guidelines, Secret Sauce, Google Search Ranking, PR Agency, Public Relations Firms, Tech PR Company, Audience, Keywords, Social Networks

Social Media Tip: Start with your personal connections

Wil Caruso — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:34:02 +0000

So we all know that social media is the new way everyone is marketing themselves today. There are so many aspects to it that it is easy to forget one of most basic ways to promote yourself - which is through your friends and family. Your friends and family will support your endeavors and help promote you, which can give you the stepping stone you need to get noticed by others. Even if you already have a well established business, asking for the support from family and friends will help you. Whether you are just starting out with using social media or you already have been using it, don't forget to try getting your family and friends involved as much as you can because they are the most likely to support you and help your business grow.

For all of your marketing needs,

MediaFirst

Tags: Social Media, Personal Connections, Social Networks, promote yourself

Why Marketing Analytics is So Important

Becky Boyd — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:12:41 +0000

Busy marketing managers often question how to analyze their marketing campaigns. In addition to asking how to perform marketing analysis, marketers aren’t sure what they need to measure. They are often overwhelmed by all the information out there, let alone which data to measure and how.

Let’s look at how analytics can help marketers. Measuring your marketing campaigns can identify what is working and what isn’t working, identify ways to improve, and show tactics that work to improve your marketing performance. Measuring and analyzing your campaigns allows you to make informed decisions about what programs to continue and which ones to focus on.

So, what should be measured?

Lots of tools exist that make measuring and analyzing your Internet marketing campaigns easier. These tools include Google Analytics, HubSpot, and others. Here are some of the things that can be measured on your website and landing pages:

Unique Visitors: Shows content & campaigns are driving visitors to your site

Repeat Visitors: Shows how valuable your content is for visitors, making them want to visit your website often.

Traffic Sources: Shows where your traffic comes from, such as a referral site.

Referring URLs: Confirms whether SEO Link Building Campaign of inbound links is working.

Page Popularity: Helps you understand which pages visitors find most interesting.

Indexed Pages: Tells how many of your pages are indexed by search engines so they can be found by visitors.

Conversion Rates: Tells you where you are converting visitors to customers. Gives valuable insight into what pages work for generating leads.

Bounce Rate: Gives info on which pages visitors leave immediately without further interaction. Could be due to confusing navigation, poor content, and no calls-to-action.

What role should SEO play in an overall PR strategy or campaign?

Becky Boyd — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:58:36 +0000

Traditionally, public relations is about crafting strategic messages that communicate exactly what the organization wants people to hear. Today, more and more businesses are creating their own content in the form of blogs, articles, “Tweets,” and white papers.

This user-generated content, like traditional PR, improves communications, generates publicity, builds awareness, and increases rankings in search engines.

Most journalists use Google or Yahoo! News services or visit a corporate website or online newsroom to find information. As people look for information within search engines, well-optimized content that references and links to other blogs and news sites and utilizes effective key words, rises to the front page of the search engine, where you will be found. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) puts a lot of effort into link building – and justifiably so, since Google weighs links very heavily among the factors it considers when deciding where to rank a web page in its results.

Major corporations like Microsoft, even small to medium-sized businesses generate their own content as part of their PR strategy. In this new world where everyone provides content, the best way for visitors to find you is to keep adding more and more content, making you more noticeable in the search engines. Submit your blog to blog search engines, such as Technorati.

Social media is part of any PR strategy these days, so make sure your business or brand has a profile on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, or any other social site. You can optimize your business profile on social media sites to effectively drive traffic and potential customers to your website.

A significant percent of Google’s algorithm is based on links. Likewise, Facebook is now allowing Google to index status updates and other social profile information that will wind up in the search engines. The more relevant links and information you have on your social profile, the better the chances are you will improve your rankings. Create content that people will want to link to, i.e., videos, stories, and pictures. Add a blog to your profile or white papers for download. Update your content frequently as readers are always thirsting for new content to consume.

Facebook Best Practices

Becky Boyd — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:16:43 +0000

· Post every day. As people make more friends and Like more pages, your posts may be missed. If you are only posting once or twice a week then it could be a long time between posts if your community misses one or two of them. Some studies show posting between 3-5 times a day can be a good amount for Pages. Studies also show that the weekend is a good time to post updates because many people are on Facebook then.

· Focus on engagement. You are trying to connect and get response from your community. Ask questions, post helpful tips, links to articles that your audience will Like and Share. When you make the posts about your audience and what they need rather than selling, you will develop a richer and deeper relationship with your community. You will sell more as a byproduct of that deeper relationship. Set aside time to follow up on posts and respond to questions on your Wall.

· Have a call to action. Tell people to click the Like or comment on the post. Or have them watch your video or go to your website. Ask them to sign up for your newsletter or just to call you for more information.

· Don’t Focus on selling. While you do want to sell your products or services, no one likes a never-ending sales pitch. Use the 80-20 rule for sales messages vs. content/connection posts. So if you decide to post five times a week, one of the posts should be a sales message and four posts will be other helpful or fun content for your community.

· Make it fun. Facebook is a social community. People are there to have fun. Stay true to your brand but think of ways to entertain your audience. Try a contest or give-away.

MediaFirst Blog | Becky Boyd | Creating Calls to Action

Becky Boyd — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:19:02 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I spend lots of time online – and I have to make myself focus on the task at hand because everybody and his brother is vying for my attention with, “Visit this site,” “Watch this video,” etc. One click is all it takes to jump from one topic to another, and everyone is competing to get that click.

Marketers must learn how to break through the noise and garner more clicks. Calls-to-action are the tools to make this happen. They have the power to grab people’s attention and direct it to new topics. They are everywhere you go.

Calls-to-action appear in a variety of formats all over a web page or email. They appear as:

Invitations to subscribe to a newsletter or blog
Phone numbers
Enter this contest
Click Now!
Visit this site
Watch this video or webinar
Sign up (for something)
Request a demo
Download Now
And more!

CTAs should direct people to landing pages, where you can collect visitors’ contact information in exchange for a valuable marketing offer. In that sense, an effective CTA results in more lead generation and conversions for your website. In order to increase visitor-to-lead conversion opportunities and leads, you need to create a lot of calls-to-action, distribute them across your web presence, and optimize them.

B2B Marketing Benefits From A Consistent Program Of Press Releases

jimcaruso — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:08:15 +0000

B2B marketing efforts benefit from a stream of Press Releases, issued at least monthly. Readers see your press release, a.k.a. news release, in many media outlets: online, in print, on tablets, and formatted for mobile devices. Social networks and social media tools leverage the distribution of press releases on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and on social bookmarking websites, such as Deleicious.com, StubleUpon.com, Digg.com, Reddit.com, etc. With MediaFirst as your PR firm, know that we leverage these for your.

Press Releases continue to be a valuable, credible source of news for readers and an important, visible outlet of audience engagement for companies. A press release, well-written by a PR company like MediaFirst, lets you tell your story in bite-sized, focused morsels.

A consistent program of press releases allows your to determine how your firm is perceived and shape that perception. A press release can cover a.) a new customer, b.) a new or expanded alliance partnership, c.) the hiring of key staff, d.) sales promotions or new pricing, e.) new or expanded company locations, f.) any new company initiative, g.) new or expanded product or service offerings, h.) vertical industry offerings or practice areas, i.) awards won by the firm or key staff, j.) certifications that your company earns, k.) suppliers to your company, l.) a survey and the insightful results, m.) company growth, n,) job openings, etc. In addition, our PR Agency Clients use press releases to highlight an M.) industry issue or even spark controversy.

Here is how our PR Agency looks at the different parts of a press release:

Headlines Draw Readers To Your Story
Sub-Headlines Let You Give Spicy Details
The Opening Sentence Frames The News Value Of The Release & Your Firm
News Release Content Serves All The Targeted Audiences
Customer & Partner Quotes Provide Third-Party Endorsement
Your Quote Provides Reporters With An Instant Interview
About Paragraph Highlights Your Firm's Industry Importance
Media Contacts Respond Quickly & Efficiently To Reporters & Editors

Keywords:

Press Release
News Release
Public Relations campaign
PR campaign
PR Agency
PR Firm
PR Company

Jim Caruso Speaking On: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and Inbound Marketing

jimcaruso — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:05:48 +0000

Jim Caruso, CEO of MediaFirst, at the Atlanta Drupal User's Group

Overview of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and Inbound Marketing

The content includes an overview of search engine optimization (SEO), conversion rate optimization (CRO), and Inbound Marketing. The presentation includes best practices in SEO, search engine marketing (SEM), content, traffic, and lead generation from a website. Supporting materials came from Volacci, Hubspot, and the specific experience of MediaFirst.

Link-building To Boost Your Page Rank & Highlight Your Expertise: Example Clean Air America's Welding Smoke Removal

jimcaruso — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:11:11 +0000

We recently built a new website for Clean Air America to improve the navigation for visitors and meet a number of expectations for today's web visitor.

Part of this process is improving awareness of the firm and make the site more searchable on the web. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the discipline and one technique is to get other website to link to your site. Here, MediaFirst links to Clean Air's website.

We mention key terms on their website and show an image, all of which reference the website of Clean Air America.

We picked ten top terms relating to removing weld smoke, oil smoke, and oil mist. These terms are described in this blog post.

Robotic Welding

Manual Welding

Resistance Welding, Spot Welding

Oil Mist Removal & Oil Smoke Removal

Laser Cutting Dust Collection

Laser Welding Smoke Removal

Plasma Cutting Dust Collection

Vehicle Exhaust Fumes

Dust Collection

Why does this work? Because MediaFirst.net has been around for a long time, which adds to its credibility. By linking or pointing to Clean-Air.com, we are endorsing the value and credibility of Clean Air America in its business of welding smoke removal and oil mist removal for industrial applications. Clean Air has installed systems in hundreds of welding training facilities around the country and in industrial manufacturing locations in North America and South America. These include robotic welding manufacturing lines that are serveral hundred feet long, covered by an enormous welding hood.

Best Practices for Hosting Your Drupal Site - Panel Discussion - Moderator Tim Dorr

jimcaruso — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:57:55 +0000

Best Practices for Hosting Your Drupal Site - Panel Discussion - Moderator Tim Dorr

I offer a review of Drupal hosting and performance improvements, including OpCode cache, such as APC; standard Drupal caching via the Boost module, CDN - Content Distribution Networks, and MySQL optimization via InnoDB rather than MyISAM. Jim Caruso

Archive.org lists 110 downloads!

Are You LinkedIn? Leverage Professional Contacts Via The LinkedIn Social Network, LinkedIn Groups & LinkedIn Personal Profile

jimcaruso — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:10:10 +0000

LinkedIn has many tools beginning with a personal profile extending to a company profile and beyond that the ability to connect to many linked in groups. For professionals in the marketplace, a LinkedIn profile is a must. Potential employers, your current clients, prospective clients, and even coworkers expect to find you on LinkedIn and understand your professional qualifications from what you've listed in your profile.

LinkedIn Groups

You may belong to up to 50 LinkedIn groups. You may also create those groups and be the group owner yourself. Owning or participating in a LinkedIn group allows you to connect with many people may be thousands of people in your target audience.

Your Personal LinkedIn Profile

But to effectively use groups, you must effectively use your personal or individual profile. The personal profile should always include a photograph. A photograph shouldn't be necessary but it matters. Newer users and students just graduating often have too many social network profiles. You should prepare to have many profiles business profiles and personal profiles. Every personal profile needs a photograph.

Photograph, Social Networks, Job History, Etc.

Clearly, the professional profile deserves a professional photograph. Beyond the photograph, social networking profiles allow you to show a status. On LinkedIn, that's that this might be a tweet, which is a 140 character comment distributed through twitter. Deeper in your profile, is your individual value proposition what you contribute to your team or your company or your customer. Because LinkedIn generates lots of its revenue from human resources and employment, a LinkedIn profile looks a lot like a resume. Therefore, your LinkedIn profile can include a job history similar to how you might list it on your resume. Your LinkedIn profile can show or not show the LinkedIn groups to which you belong. It may also display your twitter handle and even all your tweets were simply those that you choose to display on LinkedIn. On both your individual profile and your company profile you can post blog posts from your blog. Applications on LinkedIn can also display presentations, blog posts, book recommendations, events that you plan to attend, etc.

If You Are A Student Or Recent Graduate, Make Your LinkedIn Profile Now

Each social network, has its own user base which represents a portion of your target audience and prospective customers. I recommend it to every student to create a LinkedIn profile. As you get closer to graduation he should complete your profile, which means to fill it with complete information. Another strong point of LinkedIn, is the ability to capture recommendations. Former clients, customers, managers, employers, and even coworkers can serve as sources of recommendations.

Company Profiles, LinkedIn Groups & LinkedIn Recommendations Create Online References For Your Firm

As you get more sophisticated about LinkedIn, not only do you complete your individual profile or your personal profile, but you complete your company profile which now allows you to include the products and services offered by your firm. LinkedIn groups extend your reach another step deeper into this broad marketplace and a large number of professional connections. Recommendations are a source of 3rd party endorsement of you and of your work.

Make certain that each person in your organization has a complete LinkedIn profile that includes an appropriate photograph and contact information including telephone number and e-mail address.

Need Some LinkedIn Advice For Your Company & Staff, Give MediaFirst A Call

If you need help driving your organization to complete its LinkedIn profiles and online presence, give us a call at MediaFirst at 770.642.2080 or find us online at http://mediafirst.net.