Article by Pierre Zarokian of Submit Express

Many people think SEO is expensive. Some people that say this know a  little about SEO and feel they may be able to do it themselves. However, it comes down really to your time. Things in SEO have changed a lot in the past few years, specially with the algorithm changes Panda and Penguin. Algorithms  keep changing every few months. If you really have the time to learn all that is necessary and do it yourself, then you should do it. But also you would risk making mistakes, which may result in penalization.

As an SEO provider, I will tell you my point of view. In the last few years SEO has become so much more difficult and time consuming that the prices have sky rocketed to levels that most small business can not afford and are horrified when they hear it. But the bottom line is that SEO is not expensive if you can see return out of it, meaning if you pay it and make the money back plus profit, then it is justified.

So what you have to do is consider what several Top #1 or Top 10 rankings would do for you. There are tools that would let you do keyword research and estimate how much traffic you can get on various keywords. When you are looking for SEO provider, then ask them to provide you some numbers of estimates and what they feel can do for you and then you need to figure out how much is each visitor to your site worth and if they will convert. Then you can decide if it would be worth the investment.

If you need SEO Services and would like some estimates of traffic, you can contact my company Submit Express. We specialize in SEO, link building, content writing and social media marketing.

Most companies have a distinct online presence for a definite reason – to manage an online reputation.

Considering the importance of a company’s reputation to its growth, there’s no doubt that being able to manage its reputation in times of crises is indeed an imperative activity. So here are three tips that can add perspective to maintaining your company’s online reputation:

#1: Establish a strong online presence

When someone googles your brand name, it is important to ensure that it’s not just your website that should pop up on the first page. Consider using the numerous social media sites that are available, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, which will establish a solid online presence.

And remember that being in the first search engine results is vital to your brand’s success, especially if it’s a common name.

#2: Controlling responses during a crisis

Considering the highly publicized failures of the past, there’s no doubt that there are severe consequences in not being able to handle a crisis online effectively. Whether it is handling customer complaints or even dealing with a lawsuit, it is of utmost importance to monitor online conversations at all times with the intent of defusing the situation as soon as possible.

#3: Monitor Conversations

Most businesses understand how important it is to stay up to date with what’s being said about the company. In fact, the best way to do this is by using social media tools which make the overwhelming process of monitoring several social media accounts much easier.

Better still, these social media tools will help you respond in real-time and turn negative situations into positive opportunities.

With the number of social media networks that are popping up every other week, it becomes difficult for small business owners to know which social media site is the best for them as people keep moving from one site to the other.

Rather than moving along with them, it’s best to begin with the notion that not every site will suit you. So, the best thing for you to do is to find out what these social media sites are used for and whether it will work for your business.

So here is a list of social media networks that you read up on to decide from:

#1: Facebook

The biggest advantage of using Facebook is that the conversation is all in one place, and customers get the chance to feel that way. This social media site is very visual, unlike Twitter, so making use of that would work well.

#2: Twitter

In short, Twitter is about projecting what you company is doing to a large audience, much like being given a megaphone. You can not only communicate with customers but also create a brand with consistent updates.

#3: Pinterest

This social network is not ideal for self-promotion but might be useful to small businesses for the ability to create pinboards that might win the plaudits of customers if you are able to able to build visuals for the purposes of branding.

#4: FourSquare

Location-based social media services might not work for every small business as it requires people to physically visit your store or an event. This social media network is actually good for restaurants, retail stores and venues. Of course, as for online businesses, this site will be useful only if you are hosting an event.

Every business runs into unhappy customers, and in many instances it can only take one unhappy customer to create a very negative perception about what you offer in terms of products or services. A negative review that appears on an internet site can do a lot of trouble for you, spreading on social networks, linking in news stories, comments sections, and more. There are ways that you can help fight these negative reviews though and work to bury them so that they are not the first thing people read about when learning about your business online.

Online reputation management is extremely important for every business, and can go a long way to making those bad reviews virtually disappear. Unfortunately on a site such as Yelp, there is no delete button to get rid of a review you do not agree with. What you can do though is utilize the power of things such as link building and social networking to help grow a reputation with your online business online. There are several strategies out there, but the key to all of them is that the more proactive you are, the better off you are going to be in the short and the long run.

When you have put the work in, the results that you see for your business when you search for it on a search engine such as Google will be more than positive. The reality of it is that when you have a business, you want your reputation in the online communities out there to be as positive as possible. This will drive new customers to your business to try your products or services. This in turn is going to allow you to grow your sales and grow your business overall.

Blogging has been known to aid social media marketing efforts. So, if you haven’t integrated blogging with social media, it’s time to give this approach some thought.

With that said, here are 3 ways to enhance your social media marketing efforts through the power of blogging:

#1: Share Blog Posts in Social Media Updates

If you aren’t sure of what to add to your Facebook updates, posting links to your blogs aren’t such a bad idea at all. What you need to keep in mind is that you maintain the 80/20 rule – which in this case, pertains to 80% of posts being non-promotional and 20% being promotional in nature.

#2: Make Sharing Simple

Since the objective is to drive more traffic to your posts, making it easy for your audience to share these posts should only help that objective along quite nicely. Not only will you gain more subscribers and readers but it will also act as social proof that validates the content published by your business.

A couple of way by which this can be achieved is by adding social sharing buttons on your blog either at the top or bottom of your posts. Also, you can ask your readers to share these posts as well.

#3: Redirect Social Advertising Links to Your Blogs

Sometimes the social advertising directed to your site might not get any traffic, and if you are facing this, then it’s time to redirect those links to your blogs instead. The only rule that applies here is that this will only work if your posts can be classified as valuable content and is directed at an audience that are also your potential customers.

Measuring social media effectiveness is probably the most difficult thing to do. Yet measuring it is not only possible but important to understanding the success of your overall marketing strategy.

So, here are 3 ways by which you can measure the success of using social media in your marketing plan:

#1: Brand Exposure

If you use social media marketing, then measuring ‘brand exposure’ is paramount to knowing how recognized your brand has become. Of course, this isn’t going to happen overnight. But once you commit to a well-thought out social strategy, you can do this is by keeping track of site, page and video views, the number of fans, followers, blog and email subscribers as well as looking for data for branded keywords.

#2: Influence

By definition, influence measures how much of what you do causes others to take action. For example, when thoughts leaders or influencers express themselves, the chances of engagement as well as the all-important lead conversion takes place. Some of the ways by which you can measure influence are: the extent up to which your content is endorsed or shared, the number of likes, comments and shares of your Facebook posts, the amount of inbound and quality links to your content and finally, the number of Retweets, Google +1s and Twitter comments,

#3: Engagement

Simply put, engagement refers to the amount of interaction that takes place with your content by means of the various mediums of social media. When you have high levels of interaction, this is proof that people are interested in what your business has to offer. Some of the ways to do this is by the number of new Facebook likes for your posts or pages as well as the frequency of shares as well. Comments, ratings, retweets and mentions of any type should also be taken into consideration.

Some businesses find it difficult to continuously create fresh (and quality) content to share with their followers and friends whether it is LinkedIn, Facebook or even Twitter.

Of course, it goes without without saying that keeping your followers engaged, by sharing great content, is a good way to stay in touch.

So, here are 3 ways to discover interesting content that you don’t have to create yourself:

#1: News Sites

Probably one of the best places where you can find great content is popular news sites such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Huffington Post and so on and so forth. If you peruse through the different categories, you can easily find industry news or content that might be related to your niche.

#2: News Aggregators

These sites usually do a good job of putting together news based on an industry or niche and is a place where you can easily find a whole lot of related content without having to do too much research. Some examples of sites that offer this service include SmartBrief, InBound, AllTop, Popurls and Stuff to Tweet.

#3: Popular Facebook Pages

Another way by which you can find great content is to like and share popular posts made by Facebook pages. If you log in to Facebook regularly, sharing their content, which you can find in the News Feed is probably the easiest thing to do. It’s also just as easy to create an Interest List of pages that you might fancy and view the content that they post from time to time.

#4: Popular and Trending Posts

Both LinkedIn and Twitter have sections that are dedicated to informing their users about what’s trending on the social media site presently. While these might not be directly related to Facebook, you can still share these popular posts, which make for more than decent content, on your Facebook page if you want to.

It’s a known fact that almost forty percent of brands use Instagram as a way to promote their business. With an emphasis on visuals, the community that you build on Instagram can give your business that edge that is required to be competitive. And since one of the best ways to build profitability by using social networking for your business is to build a community, here are 3 ways by which you can nurture an Instagram community:

#1: Using Tools to Manage Your Account
While its interface doesn’t provide the user with many options to interact with a community, there are tools that are in place so as to make the most of your Instagram community. Some of these tools include Instagrid, Webstagram, Nitrogram and Statigram. Of the few that are available, Statigram and Nitrogram can go a long way in helping you to build your community.

#2: Responding to Comments to Build Your Community
Timeliness and adding value are two important points that you must keep in mind when responding to comments on your Instagram profile. If you answer questions in an honest and timely fashion along with responding to comments, that results in building a community the right way as well as a loyal audience.

#3: Using Hashtags to track your business’ growth
Often, hashtags can be used to monitor and track the development of your business over a period of time. Unfortunately, even though this method is used on Google+ and Twitter, it is not considered as a strategy by people who need to track their business’ progress on Instagram. Hashtags usually track and group photos that are based on the subject and related to the words in the
hashtag.

One of the most important elements of launching a successful blog of your own is finding your own unique voice. There’s just no other way.

Simply put, your unique ‘writing voice’ is the manner in which you write that will enable your reader to ‘hear’ you even though your blog consists only of words and sentences.

So, here are 3 tips that will help you find your own unique ‘writing voice’:

#1: Write as if you are talking

One simple way to know whether you did write like you talk is by reading what you write aloud. If it doesn’t sound like you, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board again.

When working on a blog, it’s a good idea to record yourself speaking about the topic before you write it out. When you’re done writing the blog, you’ll notice the difference!

#2: Forget about conventions initially

Writing, for all practical purposes, conveys a message in clear and simple English. However, in adhering to ‘standard English’ strictly, and that would please your high school teacher, this could result in the stifling of your creativity.

So, when you write your first draft, free yourself by writing in a free-flowing manner minus these rules especially if ignoring them conveys your message far more clearly.

#3: Write about what you know

One of the biggest mistakes that bloggers can make is to pick topics that are popular or sound smart. The problem with this is that the resulting effort does not bring out their unique voice or style but merely a reproduction of facts that they even get wrong sometimes. The reason for this is because these topics are not dear to their hearts.

So, it goes without saying that in order for one to write – they must write about they know and feel passionately about.

Guest post Provided by Yelp Mediation

Have you ever carelessly posted a Yelp review? Watch out, it could come back to bite you. For one unlucky reviewer, the bill for her scathing commentary might be $750,000 — you read that right. On Yelp, and other sites, Jane Perez typed out her dissatisfaction after Christopher Dietz did some construction work for her. Dietz in turn took her to court saying her comments amounted to defamation; the courts agreed with him and Perez had to take down specific segments of her written reviews.

Along with criticizing his work, Perez wrote that she suspected Dietz of stealing jewelry from her home. Unfortunately for her, Dietz was not one to take the importance of online reputation management lightly. Neither should you. Every day, more folks are gaining a deeper understanding of the impact their online reputation has on their lives. The First Amendment protects your right to express your opinions, but making false and malicious claims about another individual or entity may put you on the wrong side of the law.

Being measured with one’s words when speaking before the public is advised. It may hard, being used to oversharing, and all, but the consequences of not doing so may be even harder to face.

Read More: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/12/09/166815629/bad-meal-to-yelp-or-not-to-yelp?sc=emaf