What Is Google+ And How Will It Affect Your Comapny’s SEO?

     Not too long ago Google introduced Google+ in an effort to take on Facebook and Twitter in the social networking war – and given the fact that over 20 million people have already started using this feature since it was introduced last June, there’s a good chance it will continue to gain ground and popularity among web users. But what is Google+ and how will it affect the ranking of your company’s website – if at all?

     Google is attempting to combine the most popular features of Facebook and Twitter into a centralized social hub where users have the ability to share content with specific groups of people called “circles.” As users build these circles, they’ll be able to see websites that members of their circles have +1’d.  (Is that a verb?) There’s also a group video chat feature called “Hangouts,” and a user-defined topical news feed similar to Twitter’s hashtag called “Sparks.” While positive (or even negative) reviews from users online have always been viewed through the lens of skepticism, Google+  will add a level of validation to those reviews since you only see the +1’s from people in your circles.

     While it’s still too early to tell how Google+ will affect your company’s SEO, it’s safe to assume that Google will reward websites that get lots of +1s because of the web’s evolution to become more “social” and user driven.

     The bottom line to all of this (and a key ingredient to any company’s success online OR offline) is good old fashioned customer service. These days it’s easy for any disgruntled customer to post a negative comment online. And once it’s posted, it’s practically written in indelible ink. Get enough negative reviews and your reputation will definitely take a hit. Additionally, it’s important that you monitor your company’s reputation online and encourage happy clients to post positive comments about you.

How To Manage Your Company’s Online Presence With One Simple App

     So you’ve bought into the whole social media and online marketing idea and you’re Tweeting, posting to Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging and using Google+ (not to mention dozens of other online tools and resources) to promote your company. Whew!

     However, here’s the little “gotcha” to all of this that you might not have thought about: how do you manage all of this? And how can you keep an eye on these various websites to make sure you’re not missing a customer service issue, negative post or even a sales opportunity? The answer is HootSuite.

     HootSuite is an online aggregation tool that allows you to review and manage all your online postings and presence through a simple, easy to use interface. All in one place, you can manage your company’s Twitter accounts, your personal Facebook account, your company Facebook fanpage, your LinkedIn posts, your WordPress blog entries and more. You can even assign rights to any of your accounts to other team members without ever giving up a single password.

     Other helpful features of HootSuite include:

• Monitor social mentions of your name or company wherever they happen.
• Pre-schedule posting to happen any time in the future.
• Easily post your message across multiple social media sites with the simple click of a button in your HootSuite portal.
• Create custom reports to see where your traffic goes and what is working.
  

How To (Finally) Hit Your Top 5 New Year’s Resolutions Thanks To High-Tech

Thinking about setting the “usual” New Year’s resolutions of losing weight, being more organized and getting out of debt, but have a feeling deep down you aren’t going to follow through? We’re here to help! Below are 5 common New Year’s resolutions and simple techie ways to keep you on track.
#1: Be More Productive
If improving your time-management skills is one of your New Year’s resolutions, this will be a BIG help: Turn off the automatic send and receive for your e-mail (we can almost hear the gasps of horror). Admit it, you’re addicted to e-mail and if you’re like most people, you’re checking it constantly. In fact, there’s a good chance it’s the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night. If you want to stop the constant temptation to lose focus on your work, simply turn off the automatic send and receive function, forcing you to click on the “Send And Receive” button at set times. If that’s too “cold turkey,” you could at least turn off the sound and icon popup so you’re not distracted by it while working.

#2: Save Time
After e-mail, checking social media sites can be another huge time suck. If you (and possibly your staff ) are wasting a lot of time on Facebook, good content filtering software can keep you in check by preventing you from accessing these sites from your work PC. You can also allow certain people in your company access while blocking others; so if you have a web manager or marketing manager who needs to access these sites for work but find it too tempting for YOU, we can configure the system to assist you with that temptation.

#3: Get Out Of Debt And Start Saving More
If you feel like you can’t get a handle on where your money goes, check out www.Mint.com. This site automatically compiles all your bank statements, retirement and credit card accounts to give you one snapshot of where you’re spending money – and it’s FREE! Best of all, you only need to set it up once and it will automatically update your finances and put them into easy-to-read graphical reports – and since Mint.com connects to almost every US banking and financial institution with internet banking capability, you won’t have to manually enter your information over and over again. The site offers ways to save money, allows you to set financial goals and keeps track of those goals automatically.

#4: Lose Weight
Pearson’s Law states that anything measured improves, and anything measured and reported upon improves exponentially; so if you want to lose weight, you might sign up for www.MyFoodDiary.com and start tracking everything you eat. This site allows you to set and track your weight loss goals by allowing you to post what you ate and then counting calories for you. If nothing else, it will help you think BEFORE you eat because you need to track the calories!

#5: Get Organized!
If you’re like us, you’ve got a million things going on – from business, family and everything in between, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and forget tiny (but important!) details. Using Evernote can help. Evernote allows you to capture and organize any files, notes, websites, audio or hand written notes in one easy-to-learn interface. And with the mobile app, you can capture a to-do item or reminder at any time without the fear of losing it.