Well, it’s surprisingly simple. Here we break it down into 3 easy steps.

We start by doing extensive keyword research for our client’s website, based around their products or services and whatever else is popular in their industry.

Once we have our list of search terms, we identify which (if any) of their pages already rank for them and whether they need to create any new pages or use any existing pages to rank for these terms.

When we have the target search terms and target pages, link building can begin.

Before we dive in, I should also mention that while you can optimise and perfect your website until the cows come home, at the end of the day it’s links which will have the biggest impact on your website ranking higher in the search engine results.

So here is how we do it and why it works so well…

STEP 1: Optimise pages for target search terms

We optimise the Title Tag and Meta Description of the target page for our target search term.
Often this is crafted in such a way to target 5 closely related search terms.

Google Bot reads from left to right, just like a human, so we can carefully place the right words in the right order to optimise the Title Tag for a greater number of search terms.

The Meta Description doesn’t help rankings, but does encourage a better click through rate, which is why it’s often used to display a marketing message or top level information about the page.

That said, any target search terms in the Meta Description will appear in Bold, drawing the user’s eye to your page. So it’s worth optimising your Meta Description while including key information.
If your page is rich with content, you can use H Tags to break up your content and optimise it further.

If your web page is particularly strong, it may naturally rank higher in Google for your target search terms as a result of optimising the Title Tag.

Once the Title Tag and Meta Description are optimised, the page is ready for link building…

STEP 2: Create anchor text links to target pages

If your target page isn’t optimised, you will find it much harder to get it up in the Google rankings.

Now you need to build links to your target page using the anchor text for the search term you want it to rank for.

For example, if you had a page about “walking boots”, you would create as many links to it as possible with the anchor text “walking boots”.

It’s always worth throwing some variation in to make it look natural to Google Bot.
So you could have anchor text links like “best walking boots”, “cheap walking boots” “waterproof walking boots” and “leather walking boots” to mix things up.

If you optimised the Title Tag of your Walking Boots Page for all of these closely related search terms, you should be able to increase its ranking for all of these search terms in Google.

What kind of links can you get?
Here are just a few of the different types of places you can build links from.

• Directory Submissions
• Bookmarks
• Blog Comments
• Article Submissions
• Forum Posts
• Social Profiles
• Blog Posts
• Blogger Outreach
• Content Marketing
• Press Releases

It’s always best to get links from as many niche relevant places as possible as well.

STEP 3: Search engine rankings increase for target search terms

Now you’ve optimised your target page and built anchor text links, you should start seeing your web page ranking higher in Google for your target search terms.

Just remember that you’re competing against everyone else in the space, so it will take a number of months to get to the top of the Google for your target search term.

SUMMARY

Overall, link building is pretty straightforward.
You find your keywords and optimise your page for search terms.
You build lots of links from a wide range of good quality sources.
Your web page goes up in the Google rankings.

Obviously, it gets a lot more involved than this, with precise keyword optimisation of Title Tags and then there’s the actual act of link building itself, which is incredibly involved and a lot of hard work.
But in essence, that’s how it works.

On a final note: It’s also worth mentioning that if you go ahead and do all this link building without optimising your target pages, they will be much harder to rank in Google.

But if you throw so many links at a page that it does rank without being optimised, it may be subject to dramatic fluctuations in rankings.

I had a client once who wouldn’t let me change the Title Tags and this was the result.

So optimising Title Tag helps to effectively ‘pin’ the page in place so that Google always knows what that page is about, rather than needing thousands of back links to tell it what the page is for.

Today Google UK has revealed the most popular searches of 2012, including everything and everyone from Olympic Tickets to Kate Middleton and the North Korean techno dance sensation Gagnam Style.

But whether this is ‘Exact Match’ or ‘Broad Match’ we can’t be sure.

Top 10 Google UK Searches 2012

1. Euro 2012
2. Olympic tickets
3. Whitney Houston
4. Kate Middleton
5. April Jones
6. Netflix
7. NatWest Online
8. iPad 3
9. Gary Barlow
10. Gangnam style

We all expected “Olympics” to top the chart, followed by “Gangnam Style”, but according to Google UK, “Euro 2012″ was the biggest search term of the year, closely followed by “Olympic tickets” in second.

“Whitney Houston”, who died in February was the most searched for person, followed by “Kate Middleton”.

Other search trends demonstrate the popularity of “Netflix” and “Natwest Online” in the UK, followed by the legion of Apple fans eager to get their hands on the “iPad 3″.

X Factor has no doubt kept “Gary Barlow” in the search charts, just above the crazy dancing talents of K-Pop star PSY with the incredibly viral “Gangnam Style”.

Outside of the Top 10

The latest James Bond film “Skyfall” reflected its box-office success, as the top trending movie.

Sprinter Usain Bolt was the most searched for sports person, followed by Andy Murray, Tom Daley and Jessica Ennis.

Meanwhile, cyclist Victoria Pendleton was the most searched-for reality TV star, following her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing.

And Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt beat London Mayor Boris Johnson to the top politician’s spot.

Changing Search Trends

Some of the most interesting results are revealed in Google’s more esoteric searches.

Topping the “what is” poll was “love”, followed by “iCloud” and “3G”.

Meanwhile, the “how to” list revealed the growing trend of reigniting old skills with “knit” and “crochet” making the top 10, alongside “draw”, “kiss” and “hack”.

In many ways, a website is like a building. If you don’t lay the foundations right, you may not have a problem right away, but you’re going to have a serious problem in a few years time.

So here are three simple things you can do to get some quick rankings, but only in moderation.
Because if you do nothing but quick win ranking tricks, bad things can happen to your online business.

Allow me to explain…

1) Keyword Domains
Setting up a business on a Keyword Domain is still a great approach and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise!

However, if you’re planning on just having a Keyword Domain and throwing some spammy links at it, you’re just asking for trouble.

Yes, it will rank well in the short term, simply because it’s an exact match or partial match for a popular search term. But without good quality links and a strategy to turn your domain name into a real brand, your rankings won’t last long due to Google’s exact match domain algorithm update .

2) Spammy Links
Links are like pillars, helping to hold your website up. So if your pillars are poorly made or not likely to last, it’s likely that they will degrade and eventually crumble away. So if you lose lots of your links, your site loses its rankings.

So what constitutes a spammy link?

Well, one which might get devalued by Google for not being relevant to your niche, because it comes from a very generic or unrelated website which is blatantly selling links to anyone and everyone.

And because poor quality sites are often left to expire and are not renewed by the site owner, any links you’ve purchased from these sites will become Dead Links and pass no value as a result.

3) Satellite Sites
I love satellite sites, because they’re often Keyword Domains and they’re often held up by spammy links.

But what you’ve actually created is a website which is incredibly relevant to your niche and provides the perfect place to get relevant links from to help improve the rankings of your main site.

Hence, why these types of websites are often referred to as Satellite Sites, because they orbit your main website, like a satellite. Plus, you can have as many of them as you like.

So why bother going out to get links from other sites when you can just build your own?

Unfortunately, because business owners simply don’t have the time, money or staff to look after their 10 to 20 (or even 100+) Satellite Sites, they’re usually held up in the rankings with spammy links.

So let’s say you’ve got spammy links holding up 10 Satellite Sites. And you’ve got 10 Satellite Sites holding up your main website for its top search terms.

Suddenly those spammy links to your Satellites get devalued by a new Google algorithm update or simply disappear and become Dead Links because the site owners let their domains expire and don’t renew them.

That causes your Satellite Sites to lose their domain authority. And as a result, any links from them become equally worthless.

Oh wait, those links were the only things holding up the best pages on your main website. Well, you’re going to lose all of these rankings really quickly.

Conclusion
Don’t get me wrong, this quick win stuff is great – in moderation!

So while it may be incredibly tempting to smash your targets in the short term and get all these great rankings, if your links aren’t going to sustain themselves in the long term, your successful business could all come crashing down further down the line because someone let their domain expire or Google had another algorithm update.

Google has talked about cleaning up the web and devaluing spammy sites and spammy links for years. But now that they’re actually doing it, Future Proofing your website has become more important than ever.

And on a final note: if you do create Keyword Domains and Satellite Sites with great links and look after them properly, they can be a great way to get rankings, drive traffic and integrate with social very successfully.

There is certainly no denying that it is a very creative social networking platform that holds many opportunities, but to garner the most from EA, it becomes VERY time consuming. I have tried my best to windle out the most valuable communities for me, even starting my own community, where I have seen some great discussions taking place over the benefits of social media and especially in relation to EA. But unless you are actively seeking out relationships to build in these communities, getting caught up in “the game” can really take a toll on your productivity.

So what ‘real value’ can you gain from Empire Avenue?

Amongst other things, the most value I have gained is connecting with other Social Media whizz kids! There are people from all over the world here; practicing in all types of business, from small family run businesses, right up to the global superstars (Ford’s Scott Monty actually spends an hour a day as part of Ford’s social media activity on Empire Avenue!).

It is the relationships you build within your industry is where I see most value for individuals and one of the best contacts I have made is with Mr Jim Durbin, or The Social Media Head-hunter! Jim has trained thousands of people and dozens of businesses on the use of social media in business in the last six years. You can find him on Twitter at @smheadhunter, or check out his site at http://www.socialmediaheadhunter.com

Jim very kindly answered a few questions I sent his way regarding how Empire Avenue can provide businesses value and how he sees things going in the future.  Below I’ve paraphrased a few of the Q&A’s and put in a few ideas of my own. Take a look:

Have you seen a surge in the use of Empire Avenue and feel there is an importance for companies to use such tools to listen, monitor and engage with their customers, whilst being able to analyse their competitors?

“We know that Facebook Fans and Foursquare check-ins spend more with companies on average than the average customer.  I think with Empire Avenue(EA), we’ll see the same thing over time, if the companies decide to engage.  Just tracking your shareholders will yield a lot of extra data that will help you tailor promotions and understand your biggest fans.  The bigger value will be in showing the companies how to measure the actual social media actions (activity – compared to reach).”

There is still a lot of exploring to do with the platform, especially for big brands to gain the most value from the EA members. But there are people out there doing the ground work, day-in-day-out and I am sure we will soon see some really innovative uses of the tools available.

What have been the key benefits for you in using the platform?

“EA has really helped me manage my social media presence, turning it into more of a game and less of a duty.  Tracking just my dividends, I remember to add content.  It has also led to a larger network, reconnection with old friends, a hire for my Facebook Fan Page, and I’m waiting on a signature for a contract that includes EA as part of an integrated social program.”

Jim really is exploring the boundaries of what you can gain from EA and is why I regularly check out his posts and ask questions in communities he is part of. (He’s also very sociable and invites questions from like-minded people!). But I totally agree.

I have been on EA for a few months now, but have focused my time more on interacting in the communities and not really getting involved in the “share game” that much. I think I had an initial surge of excitement when I first started using EA, but it dwindled as I wanted to see what value the brands on the site were giving. Within the past month or so, some global giants in the consumer world have joined EA, most soaring in share price because of their brand name, but soon die out as they are not participating in communities or engaging on EA.

Many of these brands have a social media presence, but many rely on blog posts and automated tweets, (usually the reason many of them have high Klout scores) but in EA, it is soon apparent if you are engaging or not. And for me, most of the brands are not! I say most, as there are a few exceptions, Ford to name but one.

Do you see Empire Avenue as having more value than Klout?

“Klout is a score, that has a general value, and tools like Radian 6 are more of a web-wide monitoring service that would be complementary to EA, but the EA dashboard will lead to surprises.  You’re on it all the time, versus Radian 6 and Klout, which you have no reason to be on, accidentally.”

For me, although Klout are currently trying really hard with some good looking updates, (you can now rank people by influence subjects, the data seems a little more intuitive and the platform looks pretty) for me, it still is only a measure of volume. The data shown for whom you are meant to be an influencer of and who influences you always seems to be way out for me.

This is why I prefer to use EA as a means to track both mine and my peer’s social activity. It is far more straightforward and because the way your EA profile is connected to all your other social profiles, it is very easy to navigate your way around these profiles and anything that has been shared etc.

As EA’s popularity has seen a recent surge of interest, I thought it was relevant to ask, regarding platform development:

Do you feel there are any ‘stumbling blocks’ in site for Empire Avenue?

“Sure.  The growth and direction of the platform is determined by who gets in. The changes in just the last month have been huge, and the feel of the site is different because we’ve had a lot of companies and a lot of young people on (and a lot of Brazilians).  It was a tight community when I started.  It’s now experiencing growth pains, primarily from people who bring a different attitude.  If they change the board to a pure stock market, growth will fizzle, and those folks will drop out.  It’s a race, like every system, between value and contagion.  So far, EA has done a great job of handling the attention and keeping the servers running.   They disabled negative feedback, and they’re hyper-reactive in working with good ideas (they’re very responsive, even to first time members).   There’s also investment, and where that takes it.”

I am sure EA will have no trouble in obtaining investment, they even may not need it as they are generating revenues from members purchasing ‘eaves’, (the virtual currency on the platform). But I am sure there is still more that can be done and with the influx of these big brands, I am looking forward to the developments that will assist marketers taking on the challenge of using EA as another marketing platform.

So far, I have seen some great uses of the shareholder mail, mostly by individuals, (Chris Pirillo and Robert Scoble are probably two of the best examples) but Ford definitely seem to be leading the way for the big brands. Posting links to a live webcast of their ‘actual’ investor days is pretty innovative, whilst also giving something back to their community, making them feel valued and part of “the business”. This is evident in both their share price and the number of likes, retweets etc that they amass and greatly helped out with their own interaction on the EA platform.

But it is EA that makes it possible for you to compare your social activity to that of the big boys like Ford and it is this exact thing that makes me state that Empire Avenue has far more value than Klout. A big statement, sure, but one I will stand by!

So, with my apparent love of Empire Avenue:

Would you recommend to the majority of your clients to start using EA? Is it that versatile that all types of companies can get involved or is it more suited to a particular industry?

“I wouldn’t say the majority. It’s right for some, and it’s right for some people.  They have to have a functioning social media ecosystem to do this, but they can create one using EA as a training tool.  For individuals, I’d say anyone interested in social media can get value from it.”

This is the same for any social platform really, only join and create a profile if you have the time to dedicate to it to make your profile and content valuable to people so they would want to “follow” you. EA will certainly give you a good overview of how active you need to be to push your brand awareness to similar levels of your competitors.

Jim really gave me some great insights here and I’m glad he took the time to respond. It’s these relationships and information that I’ve been lucky enough to gain from being part of EA that I hope adds some ‘weight’ to these blog posts. I thought it would be silly not to ask at least one more question, not related to EA, but as he is from ‘across the pond’ I thought this may be appropriate!

Trying to keep up with the latest developments within the social world is tough as things change so quickly. Most of the success stories I read, or early adaptors of the latest platform are more than likely a US based company. Do you see the USA as being that more accepting of social media? Is it more ingrained in the USA public than the UK?

“Canada is pretty awesome.  So is Japan.  And Brazil is getting there.  The US has the advantage of spending a lot of money on marketing and PR, in addition to being a rich country that can afford its toys.  We also still draw a lot of people here, which means people from the UK and elsewhere come here and get involved in our social media, while our people going abroad tend to be salespeople, lawyers, and business executives, all in industries slower to adopt.”

Now please don’t take that as me thinking the UK Social Media guys and girls aren’t up to par when it comes to our American cousins, far from it! I have seen some wonderfully creative and innovative uses of Social Media to boost brand awareness and increase revenues, but it’s more often than not, that the USA are usually the first to fully integrate a new social network or platform into their marketing mix.

Take Foursquare for example, (another favourite of mine!). It was some time before big brands started using the platform to boost brand awareness just by simply promoting the fact they were on there, let alone get all creative with ways to check in etc. Yet, I had already read many stories of ‘mayorship’ battles run by local bars, ‘swarm’ check-ins at restaurants and more happening in not only the mainstream, but also the family run businesses in the good old US of A!

But, it is with great excitement that I follow the progress of Social Media Marketing in the UK as we are bloody good at it and we are only getting better!

There’s many viewpoints in here, so I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on these, so leave all your lovely, (or confrontational!) comments below.

“Empire Avenue is a stock market simulation social network game that allows users to buy and sell shares of people and websites.“

Empire Avenue was actually launched in February 2010, but only recently has seen an influx of big names get involved. Originally the makers of Empire Avenue relied heavily on funding from advertising, but soon moved away from that model once they relaised the value that the communities could bring. (Also, they still make money as you can buy optional extra’s and ‘luxury items’)

So what’s the point?

Empire Avenue allows you to ‘buy’ shares or Eaves, (EA Currency) in any social profile on various social networks. Once you join, you can connect your Twitter account, Facebook and Facebook page, YouTube account, Flickr, and your blog, all to which add value to your share price. Your share price is reflective of both the investments made in you by others, as well as your social activity on the accounts you connect. (For me, this makes the ‘ranking’ far clearer than that of Klout for example)

I’m sure this all sounds a bit confusing and maybe even pointless to some, but those that know the value of social media will see that this, at the moment, really looks like the next big thing. But don’t just take my word for it, take a look at some of the big brands that have created an account and are engaging with people and communities already:

• Ebay
• Audi
• Intel
• Dell
• Toyota
• LG Electronics
• WWE
• Nokia

And the list keeps growing.

But it is not just the big brands that are getting involved, there are some really big names from the Social Media communities, SEO whizz’s, techies and more. The communities on Empire Avenue are really friendly too, helping out newcomers with tips on investing, (obviously some spam exists, but experienced social media users will gain value straight away) and are great when it comes to sharing articles and posts, (hint, hint!).

I am really taken with this social game as it allows me not only to track my progress on my social channels, but also compare it to the other big players in the industry. The value I have gained from some of the super engaged communities has seen me really pay attention to how I am performing on Twitter, Facebook etc and has helped me gain a few followers along the way! But it is definitely the new contacts I have made that are really encouraging me to try to provide value to the other Empire Avenue members, so much so that I have reached out to some real big players in the Empire Avenue community, (Jim Durbin and Dr Ron Capps) that have been kind enough to answer some questions for me that I am sculpting into a post on the importance for companies to use such tools to listen, monitor and engage with their customers, whilst being able to analyse their competitors. It’ll be posted on iThinkMedia blog soon.

In the meantime, should you want to find out anymore about what people are talking about on Empire Avenue, check out this great little page from Dr Ron Capps on all Empire Avenue articles, (I’d definitely read those of Caleb Storkey, someone else who has really helped me in the EA community) which gets regularly updated.

In the meantime, please take the time to check out Empire Avenue and invest in me! Here’s my profile (e)THEDAVECABLE. Would love to know if you’re already using Empire Avenue, how you are getting on, you’re experiences or just your thoughts!

But I am not so sure. Whilst I agree with many of the points made in ‘Are we in a Social Media Bubble?’ I thought it was important to address some of these views.

Social ROI?

It is true; Social Media ROI is not as straightforward as AOV in the PPC world to measure. However, by having a clear strategy of what you are using social media for and what you are trying to achieve makes it possible to assign measurable metrics to your efforts.

“Many firms now accept, without question, the idea they should ‘initiate’ conversations…”

Companies that enter the social arena without any concept of why they created various profiles across the web are destined to fail. If your social media agency is suggesting you create Twitter and Facebook accounts to talk to your ‘customers’ in the places they ‘hang out’ then you’re in trouble too!

Our ‘thinking’ about social HAS changed

Social Media networks are now such an excepted part of everyday life.

“Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30 and 96% of people born after 2000 are part of a social network. 78% would trust peer recommendations of products and services, whilst only 14% trust advertising.” Social Media Revolution 2

With these sorts of figures, it is imperative that your company are ‘listening’ to what is being said about them and their competitors. The research that can be gained from social networks is what fuels future marketing campaigns. Traditional forms of marketing are continually being integrated with social, with many TV adverts now directing viewers to their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.

The customer service/care element of social media is clear to see. As the speed at which we expect to find information, opinions, videos and more, Social Media, in my opinion will continue to grow as a necessity for businesses rather than a luxury, ‘nice to have’ service.

Twitter is now being used by some companies as they main point of contact for customer services, allowing for almost real-time results, ‘seen’ publically. This has its implications in that if you are not seen as dealing with a complaint efficiently and promptly then your brand will suffer. However, you should not enter any form of communication with your customers or the greater public without first having clear goals and a structure of how this should be approached. Social Media is no different!

But to get this right, which many companies are doing, continue to build their brand awareness, customer loyalty which ultimately leads to sales. Sentiment of your brand is crucial as online consumers are now so fickle, therefore brand monitoring is vital.

I prefer traditional marketing channels

Marketing has always been about getting ads in the right places, in front of as many people as possible. TV advertisements for some companies completely rely on brand perception and personality, with no clear marketing message or ‘call to action’, yet big brands continue to ‘throw’ money at this channel, which is notoriously difficult to track for ROI purposes. Yet with the rise in popularity of social networks, you are increasingly seeing brands incorporate Facebook messages in their advert.

So, keep investing in Social Media

Companies who just blindly leap into the world of social are asking for it really. The same principles exist within Social Media that do with any other marketing channel, in respect to having a clear strategy of what you are trying to achieve, what you want to measure and what you are going to do with the information. Choosing an agency who integrates your Social Media with SEO, PPC and Mobile strategies will always drive results. This is why iThinkMedia works alongside in-house marketing teams, giving the brand a personality, whilst guiding through best practices and plotting a clear strategy to achieve specific goals. Being able to track what is being said about your company is a valuable service that we provide via Buzz Monitoring.

Social Media is here to stay and iThinkMedia can help you succeed!

Recently I have made it my mission to attend more exhibitions and networking events in the effort to boost my personal profile, as well as that of iThinkMedia. Concentrating on local events has been something that has proved very fruitful, so I have tried to attend more and more. This morning was the launch of the Park Inn Networking Group, or conveniently named PING. The purpose of the group is: “a fortnightly meeting for Harlow Businesses which combines face-to-face networking with practical advice on Social Media.” For me, this group is combining the best elements of networking, as there is a great LinkedIn group which has questions from inquisitive novices of social media, as well as some great hints and tips from more of the well versed within the world of social media. But this is all followed up with fortnightly face-to-face meetings.

The networking event was opened by Harlow’s MP Robert Halfon, who to my surprise was a great social media advocate. Dropping in a subtle plug for his own Twitter account, (@halfon4harlowMP) I was encouraged for how much Robert championed the benefits of social media.

Then to the ‘mingling’. There was some great conversations taking place with a very diverse mix of people in attendance, which initially I though could be a problem. However, the structure of the meeting was taken hold of by organisers Ian Hudson and Vance Rowe – two guys who by no means claim to be social experts, but can hold a good networking event!

The meetings have different focuses each time, with the launch focusing on the benefits of using YouTube for your business. Now this may seem a very basic concept for some, but the interaction and questions that resulted from this demonstration clearly showed that the information being presented was just what attendees were after. With some help from some of the attending professionals, such as a great new contact I have made in Frintan Lambe of Popcorn Web Design, advice was given to all those new to the world of YouTube. All in all, I found this a most useful networking group and would hopefully like to present to the group in the future.

But is social media taking over the need for offline networking? Possibly. But I do not think you can ever replace the need to meet people face-to-face and create a true connection. But I may be wrong, so please leave your comments below and let me know what you prefer – online or offline networking, or both? And of course, as this is a piece about networking, please don’t forget to follow me on twitter (find all the details below!).

Some of the biggest names in the business were there too, from the nice guys and girls of Brandwatch and Awareness to Conversocial and Meltwater. As at any expo, they were flaunting their wares, promoting the benefits of using their platform over others but all provided some great insights.

Many of the talks surrounded the issues of Buzz Monitoring, with Yomego giving a great ‘Practical Guide to Reputation Monitoring’ that provided some valuable information as to what to listen to, what to track and what to ignore. Many attendees participated in the discussions as talks were usually opened to the floor, with questions coming via Twitter using #smwfq, (have a look at this tag and you’ll see activity was very frequent). There was also a twitterwall keeping everyone up-to-date with statements from speakers to some amazing insights from attendees (hint, hint!)

Some of the key facts that I gained from speaking with various exhibitors and listening in on talks was that for any social media campaign to work it must be integrated with all other marketing objectives. It was obvious from some of the questions asked by business owners that they have created profiles on Twitter and Facebook as well as other social communities but are struggling to gain any real value from these channels. It seemed this was mostly due to the fact that they had not tied in any KPI’s to using these tools, or even decided what they want to achieve from using the social platforms.

It is imperative that for companies to gain value from social media campaigns they must decide what they want to get out of it, before creating profiles or embarking on building social communities. But social media is still in its infancy, as Paul Armstrong of Mindshare said that companies must test, test and test some more as there is still no ‘Holy Grail’ for social media ROI. Yet Steve Richards of Yomego gave a great statistic of:

“82% of social media strategies at multinational companies said they will be investing in social media monitoring in 2011”.

So companies obviously want to know what is being said about them but, what do you listen to?

The art of listening is difficult in the world of social because of the amount of ‘noise’ generated each minute. Which is why there were so many companies offering buzz monitoring solutions, but how do you distinguish between relevant and non-relevant mentions of your brand or company? The level of sentiment analysis is what differentiates buzz monitoring solutions for me, but the biggest point I picked up from SMWF was that no matter how accurate the buzz monitoring tool says they are, it will never replace human analysis. No tool can handle sarcasm, which is why any decent agency will always manually analyse mentions of the brands they monitor (yes, that’s right, that’s exactly what we do here!).

Analysis of what’s being said about your brand is crucial if you want it to grow, as it will give you a vital insight as to what you’re consumers and followers think of you, how they refer to you, all of which will aid future social media campaigns. So finding the right buzz monitoring tool is critical. Or you could just talk to us here at iThinkMedia and we’ll do it all for you!

I had to share this with you to, although not overly related, but I had an awesome homemade burger for lunch from the guys at The Albion pub. Highly recommended if you visit Olympia!

Below is the recent video from Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam team. This YouTube video suggests that the search engine giant may now turn its focus towards keywords in domain names.

The video’s title “How important is it to have keywords in a domain name?” which gives a rather large clue as to what organisations and their SEO agencies need to start thinking about next in order to succeed in the Google search rankings.

Conversely, it also hints at what kinds of SEO practice might work against more unscrupulous companies trying to climb up the ladder.

Cutts says in the video: “We have looked at the rankings and the weights that we give to keyword domains, and some people have complained that we’re giving a little too much weight for keywords in domains.”

We wonder who the people were who were doing the complaining but sadly Cutts doesn’t elaborate further on this! He does continue by saying: “We have been thinking about adjusting that mix a little bit and sort of turning the knob down within the algorithm, so that given two different domains it wouldn’t necessarily help you as much to have a domain with a bunch of keywords in it.”

Hyphenated domains and domains containing a superlative and keyword are both at risk (think “excellent-supplies.com” or “best supplies around.com”).

Beyond that, the lines get a little fuzzy, as many sites such as affiliates have included keywords in their domain. We’re not sure how Google will draw a distinction or if they even will draw a distinction here, so again the best way to get around the new algorithm is to make sure that your SEO strategy stands up on its own without the assistance of domain keywords.

The move comes in the wake of Google’s attack on content farms, which sent shockwaves through the internet community a few weeks ago. The message now seems to be the same as the message then: Google will reward organisations whose SEO strategy is founded on good, original and high-quality content and links along with excellent standards of usability.

Cutts also used the video to talk about the advantages of branding on websites, using Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo as examples of sites that have created great brands without using keywords in their domains. We can deduce that those three sites will survive the new algorithm then!

Google may be setting themselves up for a very hard job, but ultimately they seem very concerned and focused on improving the user experience and ensuring that only high-quality, trusted and value-added sites get prime position in the search rankings. As this is the only way that iThinkMedia work, we are not worried but some of the shadier agencies or individuals should be!

Facebook are famous for their regular updates and redesigns – not all of which are that popular with its users! However, the recent fan page changes should find favour with business customers as they can now promote their services in a more ‘Facebook’ like way.

The most significant change affects the layout of Facebook fan pages. We’re very pleased about this update as it shows that Facebook is listening to businesses as well as end users. If your business has a Facebook page (if you don’t, you need to talk to us!), you’ll see that it looks more like an individual’s page with all the associated functionality. This is in contrast with the previous kind of business page, which we think imposed limitations on brands that prevented them from fully interacting with their ‘fans’.

So what do the changes mean in real terms? Well, your brand can act like a person, commenting and interacting with other pages and people. This is great because it helps to give your brand a human-like personality, which is something that can help to connect it to consumers. Also, commenting and interacting with other pages and people is a crucial aspect of social networking for businesses. In the same way as you would on Twitter, you need to be engaging in debate in order to keep up your presence and build awareness and loyalty. To get the ball rolling, go to ‘Account’ at the top right of your Facebook page and click ‘Use Facebook as a page’.

The overhaul of Facebook fan pages also enables your brand to engage in real-time dialogue. User ‘likes’ and comments will show up in your Notifications tab, enabling you to see what people are saying and thinking about you throughout the day. Was there ever a more instant way to see how your brand is viewed? This is so helpful, especially if you’re conducting research into a possible product or you want to see how a new product is being received by the market.

As if that wasn’t enough, we have more good Facebook-themed news to report (thank you, Mark Zuckerberg!). You can also specify landing tabs in your Facebook advertising campaigns. This means that you – or more specifically, your amazing SEO agency,(as in us!) can put together specific landing pages with ease. This in turn helps you to drive traffic more easily. This is a massive improvement to how Facebook was before: marketing agencies had to adapt their welcome pages to specific campaigns, which was fiddly, receptive and not very intuitive!

Stay tuned for our next blog, in which we’ll talk about some of the downsides of the changes (yes, you probably thought all of this was too good to be true!) and how to navigate these downsides successfully.