When you click the button, you’re presented with a drop-down menu that gives you a variety of quick links to various Google sites: Google+, search, images, maps, YouTube, docs and more. You may have already noticed that the Google bar replaces the previous navigation menu, which included links to Google sites and apps on the left-hand side and Google+-related links on the right. For a more in-depth look at the Google bar, here’s a quick video tour from the Google blog:

We spend a lot of time on Google sites, and are already big fans of the new Google bar—especially since Google+ profiles are the first option. Google has made it easier to access their apps, and by making Google+ the first option, Google has given a clear sign that it continues to push its evolving social networking platform.

Not only are we fans of Google, but we’re sticklers for user experience—and, as evidenced by the new Google bar, it seems Google’s engineers are dedicated to improving the brand’s UX. Consider this quote from an explanatory video created by Google (and shared above.): The Google bar “is a little thing that makes switching apps and sharing simpler for you.” Plus, as the Google team points out, the changes to the basic Google navigation menu have paved the way for future enhancements, too, a statement that indicates that Google bar, like other Google features, continues to be a work in progress.

The Google bar joins a host of recent design-related changes, including new user interfaces in sites like Google Mail, YouTube, Maps and Translate. The only downside? Google bar isn’t currently visible in Apps accounts (which we have.) The Google bar rollout occurred over several days, so our fingers are crossed that the new feature will soon be available in apps.

In the meantime, if you spot it, feel free to leave us a comment below. We’ll keep our eyes peeled, too, and will post an update as soon as it’s available. Feel free to leave us your thoughts on the new bar, too. Do you like the direction in which Google is heading with its user interface changes?

Google Unveils New Bar, Drop-down Menu; Enhances User Experience is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Image via Google

Marketers and brands alike are excited because Google+ recently announced that businesses can now build pages. If you’re a nonprofit interested in using Google+, you’ve come to the right place.

A week or so ago, we covered how businesses can explore using Google+, and now, we’ve got some suggestions for our nonprofit friends on maximizing G+.

Whether you work for or with a for-profit organization or nonprofit one, there is a lot of great information that we encourage you to check out for an even more in-depth look at the G+ brand experience, and because the platform is still evolving, it pretty much changes weekly.

For now, however, I want to focus on how Google+ pages can seriously benefit nonprofit organizations.

Historically, Google has offered great guidance and assistance for nonprofits, but this past spring Google beefed up its offerings to help these resource- and budget-confined organizations. In addition to getting great support and resources from one of the biggest companies in the world, nonprofits should also be ecstatic about pages being available to them because:

• Google+ Circles allow you to tailor your communications to the various audiences you speak to,  and communicate more efficiently with them. There’s also the benefit of a focus-group like quality to G+ circles that allows you to communicate with, toss ideas out and potentially gather more information from an interested group of people than what you’d get if you were using a static survey or an email query.
• The Circles and Hangouts functions allow your organization to have more dynamic, quality interactions with followers, and also increase your visibility to your target audience. Hangouts can be recorded and accessed later (pssst, here are some free tools to use to start recording your Hangouts, because we know you’ll wanna).
• And, arguably the most important thing to be excited about, Google’s roll-out of Direct Connect seriously boosts your nonprofit’s Google juice.
• Actually, I’ll take that most important thing back. My favorite functionality of Google+ might just be Ripples because it creates an interactive graphic of any shares of any public post. That, my friends, is metrics. And data. Both of which make me swoon. 

How to Use Google+ For Your Nonprofit is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

I had a client once who scoffed at my suggestion of having their web content written by an SEO copywriter and was insistent upon writing it himself. I ran into the writer a week or so later – a seasoned, accomplished writer and asked how it was going. He said, “What’s all the hoopla about this SEO business, anyway? A writer friend of mine told me that it’s not such a big deal. He said all I need to do is put a bunch of those keywords in there and the copy will be fine. I’m not going to have any trouble with this.” I smiled and nodded.

That former client’s web traffic – right next door to nonexistent. Yessireeeebob, it sure doesn’t matter. Not one bit. And, for the record, it wasn’t the fact that they wanted to write it themselves that was such a big deal – I can understand pinching pennies. What bugged me was the arrogance – and the ignorance – of the writer. And it’s often that kind of attitude that sinks a business – or at the very least, handicaps it from an online marketing performance standpoint. SEO isn’t only about keywords; it’s about keyword strategy and also about an overall SEO strategy. It’s about understanding the competitive landscape, where your opportunities lie, and what you can do to take advantage of them.

Wonder How the Web Really Works?

If you’re curious as to how a web search actually works, let’s go straight to the source. This is Google’s Matt Cutts, explaining all you need to know about web indexing and spiders. Now, let’s talk about SEO and how to use it to power your business and drive more web traffic.

First Do Your Homework: Keyword Research

SEO isn’t only about keywords, but keywords are certainly a factor when it comes to thinking in terms of what consumers are searching. Wondering where to start? It’s easy. Keyword research. First, pick out primary keywords and what you think consumers might be using for when they’re looking for the product you sell or the services you provide. Do a few test drives with your local searches to see what it pulled up to find popular topics, and develop a hierarchy of keywords (spreadsheets, anyone?) And, without getting too nerdy, understand that there are different kinds of keywords. Competitive keywords are differentthan mid-tail keywords. The hierarchy approach will play into page rank, as well as how often a brand comes up with different searches in its specific sector. Sounds complicated but it’s not. And once you dive into a little keyword research, and start seeing the words people use to search for what they seek, you’ll probably geek out a little. We do – on a daily basis.

Plant Your Flag: Claim Your Business on Google, Yelp and Bing

Local search is incredibly important these days. My friend John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing and author of The Referral Engine has written a fantastic white paper on how to use local search to drive business – and once you’re ready to focus on this, you should definitely check it out. Local search is really important, because Google (and other search engines) want to serve up searchers the most relevant results – and relevant results are often location-based. Google, Yahoo! and Bing have made it easy for businesses to provide detailed information, including addresses of locations, descriptions, images and even videos, so that their locations will show up when a user enters in a matching search phrase. Smart businesses create pages that share information specific to terms consumers might search for. For instance, “Italian Food, Northwest Houston” allows a search engine to match the searcher’s request by category and location. Google Local will also show information around hours of operation, services offered, user ratings and location. Make sense? I’m thinking you’re nodding about now. If so, scoot over and claim your business listing on Google Places.Then do the same thing with Bing and Yahoo.

Don’t Be a Tease: Provide Full Contact Information on Websites—And Be Specific

One of the key factors search engines look for in results returned is the website header and content on page. The header is important because it should always include the address of the company, and the header should be included on every page. Why? Search engines can easily pull results through address, and more specifically, zip code. This will help send customers in your vicinity to a specific location, especially if they search for terms that are heavily present in the content.

Content Creation

The second most difficult SEO tactic behind link building is content creation. Content creation requires knowledge of not only the consumer, but of the industry. Why are people buying a specific product? What drives their brand loyalty? Do they only buy products that have X instead of Y? Marketers often lean on surveys (or their own opinions), which don’t always generate the best results. And sometimes small business owners don’t do any research. They often don’t know what their customers are interested based on keyword research, they guess. Instead of either of these approaches, why not do your homework, and also empower your sales force, employees and even brand ambassadors to do some listening. Have them observe, monitor, ask questions of and interact with your target demographic. It’s amazing what you can find out when you listen and ask questions. This is where social media can play a big role. From an analysis standpoint, consumers love to talk and share huge amounts of information on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. It’s relatively easy to create search lists around specific topics and keywords, join the conversation and see what topics are most popular and heavily discussed? By doing this, you can create a list of 30-35 topics that can be covered in the earned, owned and paid spaces, ensuring that you’re creating an adequate supply of content and coverage across a variety of platforms, extending your online reach and enlarging your prospective customer base.

So, do tell. How do you use SEO to power your business? And if you’re not yet using the strategies outlined above, do you think you might start? These things take a little bit of time, but the payoff can be huge. Our recommendation – get going! If you don’t, your competitors will. Or already are.

4 Steps To Powering SEO For Your Business is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

With some 40 million Google+ users, some 1 billion pieces of content shared and a wealth of webinars and Google+ experts available for the bargain price of $47 (or less), if Google+ isn’t on your radar screen, these new changes might just be the thing that tempts you to take a closer look.

I’ll admit, I’ve not spent as much time on Google+ as I would like. That’s entirely due to the fact that Google+ didn’t support use by Google Apps users. It was a tremendous pain to log out of my Apps account and have to log into my Gmail account in order to use G+. Talk about annoying. And the logic of not making G+ accessible to the folks who actually PAY to use your service, well, Google, don’t get me started on that one.

Google+ Integrates With Google Apps. Finally.

That’s all about to change. Google just added some new features for Google+, the most important of which (at least to us) is the integration with Google’s Apps for business. Hallelujah.

That announcement prompted a cheer from the V3 offices that was likely heard ‘round the world. If you, like us, are Google Apps users, you’ll be happy to know that you can finally log into Google+ using your apps login information. You’re cheering too, aren’t you?

Even more important to business users, you can get Hangout with Extras for your Apps account, which lets you screen share, use SketchPads, share and edit Google Docs with collaborators in real time. To our way of thinking, Google+ is really a platform that’s all about business (and users like us) in a way that’s much different than Facebook and its functionality. And that’s why we’re psyched about the integration with Google Apps, because it means we’ll use Google Plus more, and also its applicability in the not-too-distant future for business profiles.

In the next few weeks, Google will be releasing a migration tool that will allow Google+ users to move their personal accounts to their apps accounts. We’ll keep an eye out for it and keep you posted.

Ripple. Content Marketers and Data Lovers Rejoice

If you’re a content marketer, you’ll want to know about Ripple. Ripple allows users to see how content is shared. After we played around with Ripple, we were blown away by its functionality—and what it might mean for those interested in inbound marketing data. We love this more than words can say, and it might be one of the single coolest things about G+ – at least for our team and for our clients – moving forward.

To see Ripple in action, go to your Google+ stream and find a post. Click the drop-down arrow in the top right corner, and then scroll down to the “View Ripples” option. You’ll then be presented with an easy-to-read infographic that visually demonstrates how the content was shared between various Google+ users and their circles. Speaking of circles, the larger the circles that appear on the Ripple graphic, the more shares that have been collected.

Scroll down past the infographic, and you’ll see a veritable gold mine of analytical data. You can see a graph that charts the spread of the post. You can also see the post’s top influencers, as well as sharing statistics and languages. As mentioned earlier, Ripple presents a wealth of inbound marketing data that makes data freaks like us nerd out even more than usual, all with the click of a mouse. Want to see that schizz in action? Watch here:

And if you want more on Ripple, SearchEngineLand wrote a great piece about finding local users, then using Ripple to help you dial down into the content they’re sharing that you might want to check out. This kind of stuff filles me with more delight than words can say. Data drives just about everything we do – for ourselves and for our clients. And these kinds of tools make it easier for us to be effective. And to do things that work (enter stage left, executing flawless backflip).

Trending Posts Now Featured in “What’s Hot”

Another feature unveiled by Google is trending posts, which is available in the “What’s Hot” section. A Google algorithm is used to determine which stories are the most popular, giving you a condensed list of the hottest topics on Google+. Consider it a readymade vault of valuable content, just waiting to be consumed – or curated and shared – to those in your circles.

Like Instagram? Check Out Google’s Creative Kit

Lastly, if you love Google+ for its photo capabilities, you’ll really like the new Creative Kit, an editing package available in Google+. Creative Kit has been compared to Instagram in that it provides a number of photo-editing filters. To access Creative Kit, simply select a photo, click “Edit” and choose the Creative Kit option. Voila—instant photo effects. And for a limited time, you can add Halloween flair to your favorite photos.

So, what are you waiting for? Go play!! You might find you’ll like these new features as much as we do. And if we’ve missed anything here about these new features that you like – or hate – be sure and let us know!

Google Plus Unveils New Features, Supports Google Apps is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Local search plays an important role in business success today. If content is king, then search results are queen – or co-kings, perhaps?

Obviously, it’s important that your company’s website and/or corporate blog feature compelling content, yet if you don’t appear in search results, you’re losing out on a number of potential business opportunities – and, more simply, money.

Search engine optimization and search engine marketing are critical tools for any business today, and it’s a no-brainer that search is becoming increasingly important for a company’s viability. Don’t believe that – look at your own behavior. How do you find things you want to do or buy? If your answer is that you “Google it” you’re proving my point. The Web is pretty much our universal go-to resource for information on products and services, so for businesses, making sure their marketing efforts are taking SEO into consideration is, well, pretty critical.

And in recent search news? Local business searches – not just search in general – are emerging as key traffic drivers. No surprise, really, and one of the many reasons that Google recently announced a push to enter the local ad market as a top priority.

Consumer Behavior Reinforces Local Search Focus

Results of a Bright Local survey on consumer behavior do a good job of justifying Google’s local search focus. According to a summary of the survey published by Brafton News, nearly four in five consumers have used the Internet to find a local business in the last 12 months. I’ll bet you do that yourself – on probably a daily basis – I know I do! I mention my 73 year-old mother-in-law regularly (and mostly to wave her in the faces of all those people who think this stuff is for the young ‘uns), but even she uses search, pretty much daily, to lead her to products and services that she wants to buy.

My point: people using search to locate and research things they want to do, know more about and buy are everywhere, in every age group and just about every socioeconomic group.

What’s more, the study says that consumers will return to the Internet to find a business more frequently once they’ve conducted an initial search. They find you on the Internet, they come back to you on the Internet. Only makes sense, no? Think about your own behavior for a minute — you’ll probably be nodding your head in no time.

Local Business Search Presents a Myriad of Business Opportunities

Let’s recap:  four out of five consumers and a whopping 79 percent of U.S. consumers have conducted local business searches in the last year. I’d say that if you focus a little more of your marketing efforts on local search, your business likely has the opportunity to reach a sizable audience.

Maximizing Your Business’ Presence Via Local Search

Now that we agree on the importance of local search, here’s the million-dollar question: How do you ensure your company emerges in search results? Try these tips:

*Get listed. If you’re not already included on local business listing sites, now’s the time to submit your company information to sites like Yelp, Google Places, CitySearch, InsiderPages and MerchantCircle, among others.

*Stay updated. Make sure your business’ contact information and other pertinent details are up-to-date – and consistent – on all sites on which it appears. Don’t set it and forget it. Things change, check them every now and then and make sure those listings remain accurate.

*Rave reviews. Although you don’t want to force your customers to write reviews, sharing their experiences on sites like Yelp, Google Places and CitySearch are valuable tools when it comes to enticing others to patronize your business. Bright Local’s consumer behavior survey found that 71 percent of consumers consult reviews of local businesses, so you may want to consider asking a few long-time customers to share their experiences online.

As an aside, don’t be the person who leaves rave online reviews about your own business. That’s not only tacky, but pretty lame as well. And, in spite of what you might think, it doesn’t take much in the  “Internet savvy department” for a consumer to figure out that you’re leaving reviews about your own business – and that tacky behavior could come around and bite you in the you-know-what in no time. Just. Don’t. Do. It.

What about you? If you’re a business owner, have you spent more time and effort over the course of the last year focusing on local search? How’s your experience – and results – been so far? And if you’re reading this and have additional tips on becoming more visible in local search results, do share – we love it when our smart readers share what they’re doing and help make all of us smarter in the process.

Local Search: How It Impacts and How to Improve Results is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Google just announced that it is now easier for you to invite your friends to Google+ — ergo, it’s also easier for all you folks who don’t yet have an invite to get one.

And, after the last few weeks of spending lots of time sending tons of invites in response to a blog post I wrote about g.plus.to, the shortener that creates a custom URL for your profile, it’s nice to see that there’s now a bit of an Easy Button G+ users can employ to spread the Google+ love. And by the way, if you want to grab your own URL, do it – it’s pretty cool.

So, for you readers of the V3 Blog who don’t yet have a G+ invite, here’s your chance. Act fast — there are only 150 of them, so the early bird definitely gets the worm. Err, the invite.

Use G+ Already And Want to Get Link to Send Invites?

If you’re already a G+ user and want to get and share the link, it’s super easy. Just go to the home screen on your Google+ profile. You’ll see the “Invite Friends” button on the right hand side. Click it and you get this.

Post it on Twitter, Facebook or wherever you hang out online and let your friends fend for themselves.

Want Some Cool Google+ Stats?

For those of you interested in Google+ stats, there’s some interesting data out there. With some 25 million users in just five short weeks, Google+ just continues to grow, and it appears to be getting stickier, which means that people tend to be staying longer and sharing more. I know I am – I’m really enjoying the Google+ interface. But I still spend plenty of time on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, too.

Even though the network is still in beta, Google continues with a slow rollout rather than simply opening the floodgates. Offering 150 invitations per user to share quickly and easily via simply posting a link seems to be part of that slow growth strategy.

As reported recently in Mashable, Andrew Lipsman, vice president of industry analysis at comScore was quoted as saying he’s never seen a web property take off so quickly. And that while Twitter’s grown went from 4 million in the Spring of 2009 to 20 million a few months later, the growth of Google+ surpasses that.

Some other interesting stats from comScore:

Tech savvy areas like Austin and the Bay Area have the highest number of Google+ users, closely followed by Minneapolis-St. Paul, Pittsburgh, DC, Chicago, Seattle-Tacoma, Raleigh-Durham, San Diego and Boston.

Most G+ users are in the U.S. (6.44 million) and India (3.62 million) and Canada (1.1 million)

The biggest age group on G+ is 25-34 year olds (35%) followed by 18-24 year olds (23%); but other age groups are definitely represented – as you can see from the chart below:

Males dominate females, 63% versus 37% (this number has, and hopefully will continue to climb).

Experian Hitwise research showed that visits to G+ fell the week ending 7/23 compared to the previous week and time on the site fell 10% yet comScore’s research showed that people were spending more time on the network during about that same time period. But I think that when usage numbers are reported down, there’s a chance they may not be taking into consideration the release of the G+ iPhone app and the resultant migration.

From what we can see, a lot of our techie, early adopter friends are loving Google+ and everyone else is, understandably, already dealing with too much social network information overload to care much. But, if you’re game – and still trying to figure it all out, there’s a pretty complete guide published (and regularly updated) by Mashable, that’s a nice overview.

And, there’s definitely excitement about business applications for Google+ – and we’re really looking forward to exploring that as they roll it out in the third quarter, probably mid to late September. For more on that, check out Geoff Livingston’s blog.

Whether you’re drinking the Google+ Koolaid or not, it’s always interesting when a new platform launches and all the early adopters dive in. If you’re like me, you experiment, watch, listen, learn and try to figure out what potential this might have for my clients.

I try to avoid making sweeping pronouncements or hasty judgments and just hang loose and see what transpires. But so far, I’ve found Google+ to be pretty doggone awesome. How’s your Google+ experience been so far – I’d love to know.

Need a Google+ Invite: Come Get It is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

So Google+ launched and all the social media loving geeks – myself included – are spending ridiculous amounts of time exploring, commenting, blogging, critiquing, complaining, hypothesizing, well, you know the drill.

If you’re slightly annoyed at not yet getting into Google+ or annoyed by the incessant the talk about it, please forgive us.

It’s no different than when Quora, or Instagram (which I’m still in love with), Foursquare, Google Wave (remember that?) or any one of a number of other social media playgrounds were hailed as the new favorite of the early adopter set. Make fun if you will, but the reality of it is that diving into new platforms like these are really part of what a large majority of us do for a living.

So, not only are we required to buy all the latest gadgets (including every new version of the iPhone, iPad or any other Apple product) (at least this is what I tell my husband, so please support me on this one), we are also required, by nature of what we do for a living, to experiment with these platforms. It is only by doing that that we can understand more, test theories, see how they might apply to the work we do on behalf of our clients – and basically do the work up front so that our clients can reap the benefits. There, don’t you feel slightly less annoyed now? I hope so.

If you’re using Google+ and want to grab a custom URL for your Google+ Profile (and why wouldn’t you?), it’s super easy thanks to GPlus.

What are you waiting for? Hop on over to Gplus.to and grab yours!

Of course, if you want to stalk connect with me on Google+, here’s my custom URL, so stalk connect away.

Lastly, if you’ve not yet received an invitation for Google+ and would like one, leave your Gmail address in the comments below and I’ll send you an invitation. You, of course, will then owe me cupcakes. And I will expect to collect!

Happy Weekending!

How to Create Google Plus Profile Custom URL is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Shelly wrote a post about Social Bookmarking, What It Is And Why You Need It, and this piece is intended as a follow-up, and to give you kind of a step-by-step tutorial on using social bookmarking sites.

As mentioned in the earlier post, social bookmarking is really all about saving, discovering or sharing content online. It’s like a giant filing cabinet, filled with goodies.

From a business standpoint, social bookmarking can be an important part of your content marketing strategy.

Think of it like this: just because you write a blog post doesn’t necessarily mean someone will read it. So, once you write it, you’ve got to think about how you can share it in the online space so that others might find and see the content you produce – whether for yourselves or for your clients. It’s called “content marketing” for a reason.

That’s where social bookmarking comes in – and why it makes sense to make the time to develop profiles on various social bookmarking sites and not only use them to share your own content, but to discover other users on that platform, get to know them, share their content, find cool stuff to read, share, learn from, etc.

But in order for people to find the content you produce, you have to tag it appropriately, so that they will.

What the Heck Is a Tag And Why Do I Need To Use Them?

Tagging is like putting something in a file folder, but before you do that, you usually want to name the file folder. Online, tagging allows you to search by a particular tag and find all content associated with that particular tag. It’s a shortcut, if you will.

As mentioned, if you want to start using social bookmarking, you’ll need to learn to tag the things you bookmark. Each time you bookmark a post, you can typically chose tags or a category for the post. Use as many applicable tags as permitted to help increase exposure with different terms. This is true on all social bookmarking sites, and also true on sites like YouTube – but of course, only if you want your videos (or other content) to be found.

What is a tag? If we were going to explain tags to our “non computer literate” grandmother, we would probably explain it somewhat like this: “A tag is a one word, or possibly two word, description of what the post is about.” Bottom line – a tag tells the search engines what your post is about. It’s as simple as that.

Here is an example for you – if you were going to bookmark this particular blog post, you could use any (or all) of the following tags:

• “how to”
• “business marketing”
• “content marketing”
• “business”
• “social bookmarking”
• “social marketing”

Use any tag that makes sense to you (and your followers, if you are using social bookmarking as a “social” way to find and share content – much like the #hashtags used on Twitter). Some sites, such as Delicious, will show you suggested tags based on what their algorithms believe the content is about – feel free to use these, in addition to any other tags that you think are relevant to the content.

Some Basic Tips on Tagging

• Tag proper nouns
• Don’t abbreviate unless it’s an industry term (like “SEO”)
• Short and simple is always best
• Use nouns
• Develop a system and be consistent

Some sites, for example Digg, don’t use tags but instead use categories such as Business, Technology, Lifestyle, etc., In those instances, select the category that is most fitting to the content you are bookmarking (Note: Digg only allows one category).

Optimizing Your Social Bookmarking Profiles

Just about all of the various social bookmarking sites will allow you to complete a profile for yourself – and this is important. In fact, optimizing your social media profiles is as important as optimizing your blog or website. Take the few minutes that it will require and do that and include the keywords that describe your business.

We recommend using the same profile name on each site (which makes it easier for others to find you) and, most importantly, whether you like it or not, that’s a piece of what comprises your own online “brand” or “digital footprint” and it’s always good to be consistent.

A number of the sites will allow you to include your own website URL as part of the profile. Take advantage of any opportunity to personalize your profile information and fill in as much detail about you and your business as you want to share with potential “followers” and/or people who find and like the content you bookmark. Again, it’s called “optimizing” for a reason – and the more information you can provide about yourself and your business, the better results and/or traffic you’ll see.

Bonus Tip: If you are joining a social bookmarking site and have the ability to add multiple links within your profile, consider adding your other social networking links – e.g. add your LinkedIn profile URL to your StumbleUpon profile or your StumbleUpon profile URL to your Digg profile, etc. All of this helps create a cohesive footprint and will be beneficial in the long run.

What Are These Social Bookmarking Sites Called?

While there are many, many different social bookmarking sites out there here are some of the “more popular” ones:

• Digg
• StumbleUpon
• Delicious
• Diigo
• Twitter
• Reddit
• Mixx*

Digg and Mixx are two examples of sites that are vote-based. What this means is that the more votes or thumbs-up a URL receives, the more popular it is and, thus, the more likely it is to become featured and on the home page of the site. This can result in massive exposure for your content (and lots of web traffic for you or your clients). Note: Mixx was recently purchased and is on hiatus right now – hopefully, we’ll see it back, as it was a platform I shared and interacted on a lot and enjoyed.

What Does Social Bookmarking Do For Me?

While most posts will probably never make it to the home page of social bookmarking sites, there are still several reasons why a business owner may want to use social bookmarking sites:

• Content Curation for a niche/target market, Diigo and Delicious will allow you to pull an RSS feed for a specific tag. You could use these feeds in several ways – internal use for blog ideas, news mentions of your company that you want to feature on your website, or to easily share related content from various sources that creates a stream of fresh content for your website.
• Increased readership and distribution/sharing of the content you produce, whether for yourself or for your clients.
• Increased exposure for your business services or products to what are some very large online audiences.
• Potential for backlinks (though low, the potential is there).
• Meeting others with similar interests (networking).

Best Practices For Social Bookmarking

And, although it’s only common sense, as with anything social, you’ll want to keep the following in mind:

• Don’t promote just your own content. Surely you discover great content all over the web on a daily basis. When you do, share that on your social bookmarking sites. You’ll be amazed at how that can improve your credibility within those communities. When it comes to social bookmarking, what goes around most definitely comes around. And when you regularly share others’ content, they are more likely to regularly share yours, thus expanding your audience and bringing you fresh readers and/or friends and followers.
• Adding comments and reviews (where allowed) on the social bookmarking sites that you use can help potential visitors to those posts understand what you enjoy or found helpful. This also helps increase your credibility within those communities.
• Time. It always takes time. You’ll need to invest at least a little bit of time with your networks in order to truly grow and get exposure on the various things you submit. If you just use social bookmarking to blast your own content, the benefit you receive will probably not be as great as you might otherwise reap.

What social bookmarking sites do you use – and why? And if you have any questions about social bookmarking that aren’t explained here, please feel ask in the comments section – we’d love to help you get started effectively using social bookmarking to help in your online marketing efforts.

Social Bookmarking: How To Do It Correctly is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

People. Love. Video. Not yet sure you’re buying it? comScore’s video matrix, published December, 2010, reported that some 89 million people in the United States are going to watch 1.2 billion videos. Not this year. Not this week. But today.

They’re going to watch 1.2 billion videos today.

comScore reports that there are some 180 million online video viewers every month, which is 85% of the entire Internet audience. That audience is viewing 36 billion videos monthly, viewing an average of 200 videos per person and spending approximately 13 hours a month doing it.

Not impressed yet?

How about this – more video is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than all 3 major US television networks produced in 60 years. And nearly 100% of online spenders are video viewers. Hmmm.

Google gives businesses 1.9 billion reasons to start integrating video into their marketing efforts – as that’s the number of viewing sessions generated on Google sites alone, with YouTube ranking as the top online video content portal, with some 145.8 million unique viewers.

Yahoo follows that with an impressive 61.8 million viewers. But the most impressive climb? You guessed it – Facebook.

Facebook’s dominance in the social media space and the ability for users to upload videos quickly and easily has pushed it into sixth position overall, with some 42.5 million viewers – and climbing.

Simply put, if you pair an engaging and interesting video piece with smart search engine strategies, like appropriate titles and keywords, you can seriously boost your Google juice. Research has shown that your brand is 53 times more likely to appear on page 1 of Google search results if you have video incorporated into your online marketing efforts. Whoa. 53 times more? If that doesn’t get your attention, we’re not sure what will.

Video can boost click-thru rates and compel action.

Research shows that when video is embedded in an e-newsletter, click-thru rates increase by 96%. Additionally, research suggests that consumers who view a product demo while shopping are 85% more likely to purchase. Already rethinking how you feel about video now, aren’t you?

Want to know more — watch this presentation by comScore’s Dan Piech at OMMA’s January 2011 event.

Video isn’t just for the big dogs anymore.

The reality is that you don’t even need a professional these days to produce good video content. Our friend, Steve Garfield is a video master and author of the book Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business. All you need is a camera, some decent lighting and the desire to get going. And picking up Steve’s book won’t hurt your chances for success either.

If you don’t want to do it yourself, thanks to companies like Pixability, you don’t have to spend a fortune to get video produced for your brand. They offer anything from a one-video package to a bundle of several types of promotional videos. With most of their packages, Pixability, also offers access to a software platform that helps you push the video out across social outlets and then track the performance of these videos. If you’re already have video they also offer to help refine your marketing plan to help you get campaign off the ground.

Bottom line — producing good video to use for marketing, brand awareness and community engagement is becoming much easier and affordable. It can even be free. And putting compelling video content out there can – and undoubtedly will – help drive more traffic to your site and gain exposure for your brand.

Remember though – just because you add video into your marketing mix doesn’t mean it will become the next viral hit on the interwebs. As with any marketing tools, be sure you have a good strategy in place so you can put the best foot forward for your brand on the web. And, as with any other part of your content marketing strategy, the importance of investing your time and energy in building a great community in the online space is something that should never be overlooked.

As an added benefit, scoot over and read this terrific post by my friend Geoff Livingston, called Why Content Marketing Fails. The biggest downfall of brands trying to use content marketing strategies is that they fail to understand one simple thing: Content marketing is about being human. And about telling stories. Video can help you do that. So can listening to Geoff’s advice.

If you’re not yet using video as part of your content marketing strategies, here’s hoping this information might cause you to reconsider.

Photo credit: TIHAN

Content Marketing: Why Video Works is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Google announced today that Kansas City will be the first city to get its super duper 1Gbps Internet service. Crazy people like me who spend their days involved in online marketing and helping clients grow their Internet presence are doing backflips, we’re so excited.

Google will be working with a number of local organizations including KCNext, the University of Kansas Medical Center and the Kauffman Foundation, among others, to build community relationships and deliver high speed Internet speeds that’ll hopefully make our heads spin.

As reported by Forbes, Google’s announcement states:

We’re planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

Although the service awaits approval from Kansas City’s Board of Commissioners, it’s unlikely given the excitement of the community and its leaders that there will be any roadblocks there, and rollout is expected to begin sometime in 2012.

Bo Fishback, VP of Entrepreneurship for the Kauffman Foundation said it nicely, when he remarked: “It’s going to be probably the most buzzed event in the history of Kansas City on the day it’s announced. That’s awesome. That’s pretty amazing.” Yes, Bo. Yes, it is.

Google’s goal is a simple one: Delivering great connectivity to ordinary people. And driving the economy around it. And, according to Google CFO, Patrick Pichette, making things “not sucky.”

As a long-time Kansas City resident, hearing Kevin Lo, GM, Google Access, say that the Google team responsible for selecting a city to launch this Internet service were blown away by the leadership of our city, Mayor Joe Reardon, the City staff, the utility and others involved in the process — well, it makes me pretty proud to say I live here.

As Pichette mentioned, connectivity that doesn’t suck is a huge step forward. For our community, for local business, for teachers and students, for entrepreneurs, for our Economic Development Council — really, for pretty much everyone.

Here’s the announcement from Google:

Sergey Brin, Google’s Co-President and Founder wraps up it nicely when he says, “It is a privilege to deploy his high speed network together with the people of Kansas City.”

Trust me, Sergey, it is our privilege, too.

Nerd on!

Kansas City First to Get Google Gigabit Internet Service is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency