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Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

At Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization we know that knowledge is power. That's the reason we started this SEO blog. We know that the better informed our visitors are, the better the decisions they will make for their websites and their online businesses. We hope you enjoy your stay and find the SEO news contained within this blog useful.

November 20, 2012

Should Microsoft ask for a refund?

Steve Balmer really gets worked up at press events..

I don’t know about Steve Ballmer, but if I paid Oprah to advertise my new tablet, I’d demand my money back after she used an iPad to say that the Surface is a better/preferred device.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the tweet of the week:

Oprah Tweets about the Surface using her iPad

Oh no she didn’t. Woman don’t tell me you pushed that out via iPad..?

So that really happened, and it’s stirred up some funny arguments about expectations of paid promotions.

If you as a website promoter paid someone to promote your site and they accidentally/incidentally promoted the competition instead, how would you handle it?

Wait, lets see if we can deploy some fancy web tech to help gather your answers!

[yop_poll id="2"]

The next question is how will someone in charge of damage control will explain away Oprah’s iPad based praise of how superior the Surface is?

This is a bit like watching a bus crash in slow motion, except the bus is full of people you really don’t like.

A smiley face eating popcorn and drinking.

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 12:49 pm

Categories: IT Industry,just for fun,Misc,Technology
Tags: #FavoriteThings, iPad, Microsoft Surface, Oprah, twitter —

July 20, 2012

Gearing Up for Social Media Marketing

Image: freedigitalphotos.net

Different demographics are using different social media channels. Reaching the right audience with social media is about using the right channels and voice to connect with and engage your followers. Different sites as well as online marketing and analysis techniques can help you connect with the audience you’ve been trying to reach. Below is information about common social media networks and their audiences so you can gear each channel towards the demographic and sectors of your potential audience that uses it most.

Facebook

There are a number of infographics and articles online with information about who is using Facebook. Knowing that the average person visits the site 40 times per month may not be the information. Here is breakdown of who is using Facebook and how to connect with them:

People from the ages of 18-44 are using Facebook the most. This means you’re information needs to be broad enough to reach and connect with most of your audience, but not so broad that no one takes interest. Posting information about news topics related to your field and asking open-ended questions are two of the best ways to do this.
Though the 20- and 30-somethings are some of the most active on Facebook, people over the age of 45 are becoming more frequent users. If your products relate to the older demographic, share information they can relate to. If your services are for those in their early 20’s, share that.
Because the Facebook audience is so broad, use Facebook Insights to see who is on your page and talking about your company. Gaining knowledge of your key demographics can help you provide content that will encourage more interaction and engagement.

Twitter

Like Facebook, Twitter had a wide range of users. Men and women use the site pretty equally, though a large majority of Twitter users include African Americans and Hispanics. People are more likely to buy from a company the follow on Twitter than from one they don’t so reaching your audience on Twitter is an important factor for both online engagement and overall sales.

Most Twitter users live in urban areas. If your business is based in a well-populated city, turn your Tweets to reaching those in the same city and other urban areas.
Because Twitter now has targeted promoted tweets, you can reach a specific audience. You aren’t tweeting to all your followers, unless you choose to do so. You are instead, placing the tweet in front of the audience you want to reach.
Programs like SocialBro provide insight into who your audience is and when they are online. Knowing the material that will relate most to your audience as well as the right times will help you refine your Twitter strategies to reach new people.
Many tweets are now coming from smartphones and 1 in 5 smartphone owners use Twitter on their phones. Sharing and tweeting comments that can be viewed quickly via a smartphone could increase your Twitter traction.

Pinterest

Pinterest, at the moment, has a more focused audience. Composed mostly of women, top interests of this image-driven site include crafts, gifts, hobbies, interior design and fashion. Brands based in these areas should be devoting a decent amount of time to their Pinterest efforts. Even if your business doesn’t seem to be a fit, your company’s Pinterest can succeed.

A top geographical location of Pinterest users is the East South Central United States, which includes Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. Posting images that people of this region can relate to and take interest can lead to more engagement on your Pinterest boards.
Women compose nearly 80% of Pinterest account holders. Regardless of your brand, gearing images toward women is a great tactic.
See what’s trending and consider how your business can relate. Because Pinterest is open to a wide variety of images and information, focusing on what the users are pinning at the moment can gear your boards and pins in the right direction.

Tumblr

Tumblr combines blogging and image-sharing to create a unique site that’s perfect for social bloggers. Men and women use the site pretty equally. One of the most surprising demographics is the age. According to an infographic from Mashable, over half the site’s users are under the age of 34, with 18% of the total users being under the age of 18. Fitting your company into Tumblr means targeting content to a younger audience.

Because the age group is so young, gearing content to trending topics and information a person around the age of 20 can relate to is a great way to gain a following. Use common tags and popular images to increase traffic.
Some of the most tagged terms on Tumblr include gif, “LOL” and fashion, though art and vintage are other common tags. Use these as they relate to your business and content to gain new followers.
See which of your posts, reblogs and other content receive the most traction. What tags lead to followers? What content generates the most buzz? Measure your progress so you can easily make adjustments.

All social media sites are about connecting. On Facebook, you can connect with people of all ages and from all backgrounds. Twitter is used by people in urban areas who want a quick and constant stream of information. Pinterest appeals to women and Tumblr to a younger demographic. With each social media site, research who likes and follows your company to see which audience is the most engaged with your company on that channel. As you figure out what your audience is on each channel, you can gear the content towards them for more successful social media campaigns.

Author:
Erica Bell is a small business writer who focuses on topics such as telemarketing and social media trends. She is a web content writer for Business.com.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 11:08 am

Categories: Facebook,LinkedIn,social media,Twitter
Tags: Erica Bell, facebook, pinterest, social media, tumblr, twitter —

July 25, 2011

June 7, 2011

Jobs gives the skinny on iCloud

A slender Steve jobs came out of medical leave to deliver the keynote address at the 2011 Developers Conference hosted by Apple.

Looking more like the South Park rendition of the man behind Apple, Steve was notably tired and unhealthy looking (much like the Canucks last night) as he delivered all the details on the new iCloud service:

- Works with iPhones, iPads, iPods, iMacs, and iBooks
- Synchronizes contacts, calendars, and files among devices
- Basic service is free (replacing the $99/yr MobileMe)

While the offerings are similar to free services from Google, Amazon, Dropbox, etc.., they are some firsts for Apple and will assist Apple users who have legacy audio on CDs.

For a fee of $25 (US) each year, Apple will scan the hard disk of a customer to seek out all non-iTunes music on the assumption they were converted from a CD the user owns. Music that is not already on iTunes will be uploaded to iCloud. If the music is already on iCloud then the song will be added to the user’s iCloud locker without the need to re-purchase music.

Apple mentioned that they are in talks with major recording companies to make this possible, which is a far cry from having those companies on board with such a consumer-friendly design.

Also announced was the Lion OS update for Macintosh. Consumers next month will be able to purchase Lion for $32 and can expect enhanced touch control features, like task switching with gestures, to be included.

iOS5 was also mentioned, as it will come with a new showcase for content that used to be the domain of printed materials, such as newspapers and magazines. Consumers are supposed to think of this as a digital newsstand, however there was no mention of how this presentation would make the content more accessible or interesting. Tweeting from photo apps and more social media connectivity with Facebook seems to be one of the biggest highlights, but we can expect more details closer to the release date.

PS: Don’t forget, tomorrow is IPv6 day, don’t miss your chance to be part of the test.

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 6:16 pm

Categories: Facebook,Internet Law,internet security,Privacy,social media,Twitter
Tags: Apple, facebook, iBook, iCloud, iLocker, iMac, iOS, iPad, iPod, iTunes, Steve Jobs, twitter —

February 22, 2011

How important is Klout?

When Klout first came out it seemed like a decent idea with limited appeal. If you were doing business with someone online and wanted to profile them at a glance it was a handy tool to pull together both Facebook and Twitter info on one spot without any information overload.

The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

How does Klout influence SEO? Well head on over to our Klout score and take a look at what an honest Klout looks like from an organic SEO: BeanstalkSEO on Klout

See how there’s some influence and natural looking results? Now say you found the twitter name of our biggest competition on Google’s search results.. Go look at their Klout, see what’s missing?

Suddenly Klout has a role in defining who really listens/talks to who, what crucial networks they belong to, and when someone is just a source of noise/self importance, it shows.

You could get on Facebook, and Twitter, friend all the people you’re curious about and compare the results from the two networks, or you can just go look them up in Klout and save a bunch of time.

The only problem I have with Klout is that it’s rather proprietary with it’s support for just Facebook and Twitter. This means if you have an excellent profile on Wikipedia that’s linked to from lots of other Wiki pages, that would never effect your Klout score, but it’s one of many sources that probably should?

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 12:29 am

Categories: beanstalk,Facebook,Google,Misc,Rankings,SEO Tools,social media,Twitter
Tags: facebook, influences, Klout, Organic, seo, twitter —

May 25, 2010

Beanstalk’s New Twitter Page

Well I’ve finally joined the 21st century. As many of my friend’s have mocked me for – I didn’t get involved with social media until only recently. I have been a heavy user of Facebook for a while but I only have friends on my friends list (what a novel concept) and I’ve only been using Twitter for a few months. I’ll admit that after many months of basically exclaiming that Twitter was nothing more than another time-sucking waste I’ve been partly converted. It is a time-sucking waste but a useful one.

I’ve had a Beanstalk page up on twitter for a few months. We have 390 followers due in large part to the fact that I’m only following 330 people. Why? Well, because I still hang on to the belief that if I’m going to use Twitter I should keep it useful and to keep it useful I can’t have 8000 people all screaming their ads at me, cluttering up the comments from people I’m interested in. I have many friends that I don’t follow simply because I’m not interested in their Twitter topic (not a “cat person” for example) and because I’m not overly concerned about increasing my follower numbers just for a sake of it. If I want my information getting out there then it makes sense to follow people who are interested in my topic (SEO) that way the people who follow me are more likely to Retweet, etc. Basically – I use it more as a communications tool so if I don’t follow you – don’t feel bad, you should only follow me if you’re actually interested in my Tweets too.

So that’s been going on for a few months with over 1000 Tweets to my name – so why talk about his now? Well, my good friend Kristine has just designed for us a fantastic Twitter background. This replaces the tiles of pics of my kids that the page used to contain. Need to express my sincere thanks to Kristine and highly recommend her if you need a new and professional Twitter background or some hand-coded site design work (note: highly talented there as well and that’s actually more how I know her).

And of course – you’re welcome to follow us on Twitter (or just view our awesome new background at http://twitter.com/beanstalkseo.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 9:20 pm

Categories: Twitter
Tags: twitter —

January 26, 2010

The “Truth” About Twitter

Back in my younger years (we’ll call them … about 365 days ago) I spoke out against Twitter. On my weekly radio show, in this blog, really anywhere there were Twits, I would go off on the same rant: I have enough things sucking my time away … why would I possibly use Twitter?

And then age set in and I succumbed to the pressures of the online marketing world, created a Twitter account, installed the app on my iPhone (watch for another interesting blog coming soon related to the iPhone) and was happy when more people followed me. Alas, I too was flushing more time down the proverbial toilet that could likely have been better spent on forums or (wait for this great revelation) … working or spending time with my family. Here’s where it gets truly sad – I know this and I still do it. I read stats that only 27% of tweets are useful and find that to be generous and yet still I tweet and read the tweets of other twits. You can read them at @beanstalkseo and even as I type this, I hope you’ll follow me on Twitter. That’s right – I have a problem.

It was one of my co-workers that brought to my attention a video that gives me hope. There are others like me out there and perhaps, just perhaps, we can all join a 12-step program and find help. If you hear of one – be sure to tweet it to me. Here’s the video (enjoy – it’s very funny):

http://current.com/e/89891774/en_US

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 4:22 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: twitter —

December 10, 2009

Wow – First Page Rankings Sure Are Easy …

Yesterday I touched on the Twitter rankings on the first page of Google for competitive phrases. Today I was tweeting while listening to an SEOmoz webinar and noticed that a friend of mine ranked on page one for “seo” via the Twitter feeds. My tweet about this then ranked me and my tweet about this irony then ranked. it appears that it’s easy to now rank on page one which is precisely why this “feature” will soon die.

I had assumed that for this to work well you needed a strong twitter account but I’ve avoided it until recently so only have about 100 followers. Hardly a strong account thought I’d trying to build those number by providing periodic updates and good info (you can follow me at @beanstalkseo should you feel so inclined).

You can view the rankings I’m referring to at

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 3:22 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: google, seo, twitter —

December 9, 2009

Twitter In Google Results

Alright, today is the first time I’ve seen this. Now we’ve all seen Twitter in the Google results. We’ve all seen articles in the Google results but never before have I seen a scroll box with a mix of articles and Twitter comments half way down the first page.

As quickly as it came it disappeared but fortunately I’d done a screen capture which you can view here:

As if things weren’t complicated enough.

And for those of you thinking this is just for longtail – the search phrase was “car insurance”. Obviously we’re looking at a major phrase here.

Shortly thereafter it went back to News Results indicating this may be a Caffeine test reinforcing rumors that Twitter and other social media avenues will have a greater impact in a post-Caffeine world.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 7:05 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Caffeine, google, twitter —

September 24, 2009

Twitter Hack & Net Neutrality

Today Jim Hedger and I hosted Webcology on WebmasterRadio.fm. Every week we have a great time covering the latest happenings in the search engine and search marketing world but today, rather than amicably discussing the issues – we battled it out over Net Neutrality.

Net Neutrality is a subject that both Jim and I have enjoyed debating over the years. We first did so in front of an audience back at SES San Jose 2008. Jim takes the pro-Net Neutrality side and I take the anti-net neutrality side of the debate. In truth – both of us fall somewhere in the middle but a debate is sure a lot more entertaining to watch than two fence sitters discussing their ambiguous feelings.

When I first entered the debate I was pro-Net Neutrality. Now I tend to lean towards an anti-Net Neutrality perspective but with an understanding of the need for consumer protection. The same consumer protection that exists currently and seems to be doing a fine job.

You can listen to the argument by downloading the podcast from the Webmaster Radio site at http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/webcology/2009/fcc-backs-net-neutrality/.

We also discussed the hacking of Jim’s Twitter account and how to safeguard your information. Seriously – if it can happen to Jim, a 13 year veteran on the Internet, then it can happen to anyone.

For those of you who head over to the show – enjoy and be sure to listen next Thursday at 2PM EST (11AM Pacific) for another great show. We might even have a great guest or two.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 1:59 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: jim hedger, net neutrality, twitter, webmaster radio —

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