Awhile back I wrote a blog on the rumors of a Facebook, “want” button and this rumor turned out to be true! While this new feature is still in beta testing and it’s not really a want button but a product page to collect all your favorite products that are then added to your timeline, I still think that this is the beginning of something pretty amazing.

Right now a couple of brands are testing this new feature, Pottery Barn, Wayfair, Victoria's Secret, Michael Kors, Neiman Marcus, Smith Optics, and Fab.com support this new collections feature.

So I mosied on  over to the Pottery Barn page and tested out this cool feature. Once I clicked on like this is what appeared:

A little window popped up asking me why I liked this. Well, I had no real answer to give since I’ve never set foot in a Pottery Barn, but I’m sure avid customers of this retail store will have loads to say.

On Smith Optics they even  have an option of buying their sunglasses:

So where does these collection of products go? Look below, Facebook kindly organizes what products I liked in my Activity Log-how great this this?

A spokesperson for Facebook in a statement described Collections as "a small test in which a few select businesses will be able to share information about their products," adding, “ we've seen that businesses often use Pages to share information about their products through photo albums. Today, we are beginning a small test in which a few select businesses will be able to share information about their products through a feature called Collections.  Collections can be discovered in News Feed, and people will be able to engage with these collections and share things they are interested in with their friends. People can click through and buy these items off of  Facebook.”

Hmm, that kind of sounds like Pinterest to me. Do you think Facebook will try to buy out Pinterest?

Awhile back I wrote a blog on the rumors of a Facebook, “want” button and this rumor turned out to be true! While this new feature is still in beta testing and it’s not really a want button but a product page to collect all your favorite products that are then added to your timeline, I still think that this is the beginning of something pretty amazing.

Right now a couple of brands are testing this new feature, Pottery Barn, Wayfair, Victoria's Secret, Michael Kors, Neiman Marcus, Smith Optics, and Fab.com support this new collections feature.

So I mosied on  over to the Pottery Barn page and tested out this cool feature. Once I clicked on like this is what appeared:

A little window popped up asking me why I liked this. Well, I had no real answer to give since I’ve never set foot in a Pottery Barn, but I’m sure avid customers of this retail store will have loads to say.

On Smith Optics they even  have an option of buying their sunglasses:

So where does these collection of products go? Look below, Facebook kindly organizes what products I liked in my Activity Log-how great this this?

A spokesperson for Facebook in a statement described Collections as "a small test in which a few select businesses will be able to share information about their products," adding, “ we've seen that businesses often use Pages to share information about their products through photo albums. Today, we are beginning a small test in which a few select businesses will be able to share information about their products through a feature called Collections.  Collections can be discovered in News Feed, and people will be able to engage with these collections and share things they are interested in with their friends. People can click through and buy these items off of  Facebook.”

Hmm, that kind of sounds like Pinterest to me. Do you think Facebook will try to buy out Pinterest?

We have all seen the recent commercials Bing has launched claiming to be a better search engine than Google by offering blind tests to pedestrians around San Francisco, right? Whether you fancy Google or Microsoft's search engine, the fact remains that some people do use other search engines than the all mighty Google. So how can you optimize your website for Bing, and what’s that other search engine? Oh yeah...Yahoo! Well, In a guest post at MarketingProfs' Daily Fix, Amanda DiSilvestro says that it takes little effort, and it might yield profitable results:

Bing-specific keyword research will take some time, she said, but the differences from Google are minor:

• Domain age. "Bing puts more emphasis on domain age than Google," she notes. "If you have an older domain, you're already on your way! That was easy, right?"
• Titles. Microsoft's search engine also puts a greater emphasis on title tags; be sure your title includes your keyword.
• Flash. While Google is fairly hostile to Flash, Bing doesn't mind, and a Flash-heavy site should perform well.

Now we're getting to the really easy part. Once you've optimized for Bing, you've also optimized for Yahoo! "Yahoo results are powered by Bing," DiSilvestro explains. "In other words, if you're optimizing for Google first and Bing second, your third-search engine is pretty darn simple."

Aside from these differences that Amanda stated, Microsoft's search engine also loves outbound links while Google does not really pay attention to them. It won’t hurt to add outbound links to your dealership’s blog to rank organically on this search engine.

Dealer Take Away: Don’t be narrowly focused just on Google, if you pay a little attention to Microsoft's search engine you’ll also gain Yahoo! prospects. If you need help on some easy ways to SEO your website, check out my previous blog SEO 101 and if you took the  blind test, share your results in the comment section below!

We have all seen the recent commercials Bing has launched claiming to be a better search engine than Google by offering blind tests to pedestrians around San Francisco, right? Whether you fancy Google or Microsoft's search engine, the fact remains that some people do use other search engines than the all mighty Google. So how can you optimize your website for Bing, and what’s that other search engine? Oh yeah...Yahoo! Well, In a guest post at MarketingProfs' Daily Fix, Amanda DiSilvestro says that it takes little effort, and it might yield profitable results:

Bing-specific keyword research will take some time, she said, but the differences from Google are minor:

• Domain age. "Bing puts more emphasis on domain age than Google," she notes. "If you have an older domain, you're already on your way! That was easy, right?"
• Titles. Microsoft's search engine also puts a greater emphasis on title tags; be sure your title includes your keyword.
• Flash. While Google is fairly hostile to Flash, Bing doesn't mind, and a Flash-heavy site should perform well.

Now we're getting to the really easy part. Once you've optimized for Bing, you've also optimized for Yahoo! "Yahoo results are powered by Bing," DiSilvestro explains. "In other words, if you're optimizing for Google first and Bing second, your third-search engine is pretty darn simple."

Aside from these differences that Amanda stated, Microsoft's search engine also loves outbound links while Google does not really pay attention to them. It won’t hurt to add outbound links to your dealership’s blog to rank organically on this search engine.

Dealer Take Away: Don’t be narrowly focused just on Google, if you pay a little attention to Microsoft's search engine you’ll also gain Yahoo! prospects. If you need help on some easy ways to SEO your website, check out my previous blog SEO 101 and if you took the  blind test, share your results in the comment section below!

Twitter recently announced some improvements for their advertising platform,  including the ability to choose which tweet you promote and reporting of follower growth. Manually selecting a Promoted Tweet lets you can pick exactly which Tweets you want to go out, allowing for a much deeper integration of paid media in any brand’s Twitter strategy. According to Socialfresh.com  there are 3 reasons why this matters to market your brand:

1. Brands asked for more

Users now can now check existing engagement and demographic stats against their follower growth. The update doesn’t turn the Twitter backend into anything like SimplyMeasured, Radian6 or the like, but it’s not that bad. The important thing is people asked, and Twitter eventually delivered. Now, if only they could figure out that developer thing…

2. Keeping up with the Joneses

As we see Twitter move into the mainstream as a widely adopted channel for communication, they needed to figure out someway to continue to bring comparable value to their advertisers like the big blue elephant in the room (which many would argue has its own set of issues).

3. The Hashtag Explosion

If you haven’t noticed, hashtags are pretty popular.  From bringing people together in Twitter Chats to being used as slang or inside jokes, the hashtag is used by nearly every demographic group on the site.

For a better example, look no further than the X-Factor!

According to Twitter’s Blog:
The show’s new lineup of judges, including Britney Spears, Demi Lovato, Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid, have embarked on a race to see who is America’s favorite “The X Factor” judge based upon who can get their hashtag trending first.
Britney Spears – @BritneySpears – #ItsBritney
Demi Lovato – @ddlovato – #QueenD
Simon Cowell – @SimonCowell – #MrNiceGuy
L.A. Reid – @LA_Reid – #ImEpic

Brands large and small have been using the promoted tweets and promoted account products to help grow engagement, drive traffic to promoted URLs, and get more followers on Twitter.

Have you tried out Twitter advertising yet or are trying to implement it in your strategy?

*Blog was originally posted at http://blog.activengage.com/2012/10/twitter-brand-tools/

Twitter recently announced some improvements for their advertising platform,  including the ability to choose which tweet you promote and reporting of follower growth. Manually selecting a Promoted Tweet lets you can pick exactly which Tweets you want to go out, allowing for a much deeper integration of paid media in any brand’s Twitter strategy. According to Socialfresh.com  there are 3 reasons why this matters to market your brand:

1. Brands asked for more

Users now can now check existing engagement and demographic stats against their follower growth. The update doesn’t turn the Twitter backend into anything like SimplyMeasured, Radian6 or the like, but it’s not that bad. The important thing is people asked, and Twitter eventually delivered. Now, if only they could figure out that developer thing…

2. Keeping up with the Joneses

As we see Twitter move into the mainstream as a widely adopted channel for communication, they needed to figure out someway to continue to bring comparable value to their advertisers like the big blue elephant in the room (which many would argue has its own set of issues).

3. The Hashtag Explosion

If you haven’t noticed, hashtags are pretty popular.  From bringing people together in Twitter Chats to being used as slang or inside jokes, the hashtag is used by nearly every demographic group on the site.

For a better example, look no further than the X-Factor!

According to Twitter’s Blog:
The show’s new lineup of judges, including Britney Spears, Demi Lovato, Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid, have embarked on a race to see who is America’s favorite “The X Factor” judge based upon who can get their hashtag trending first.
Britney Spears – @BritneySpears – #ItsBritney
Demi Lovato – @ddlovato – #QueenD
Simon Cowell – @SimonCowell – #MrNiceGuy
L.A. Reid – @LA_Reid – #ImEpic

Brands large and small have been using the promoted tweets and promoted account products to help grow engagement, drive traffic to promoted URLs, and get more followers on Twitter.

Have you tried out Twitter advertising yet or are trying to implement it in your strategy?

*Blog was originally posted at http://blog.activengage.com/2012/10/twitter-brand-tools/

If you aren’t too keen on search engine optimization, I’m here to help you whether you’re going to SEO your website yourself or outsource it. First thing's first, you must always have a strategy.

Pre-Plan
Search engines consider a number of factors when determining how to index. For example, the way the pages of your site link together (i.e. the information architecture) will determine how easy it is for search engines to crawl and index. Also, the speed at which your pages load is a strong signal to search engines about the usability of your site.

Keyword Research
What are customers typing into search engines in order to find you? You need to know what content is most appropriate to your target audience and what they are looking for. You also need to know what title to give your homepage, your product pages, your category pages, etc.

Keyword research is the process of finding out which search terms to go after to maximise the amount of traffic and, more importantly, conversions (form leads, sign-ups etc.) that your site attracts.
You can use the free Google Adwords Keyword Tool to retrieve approximate search volumes and ranking difficulty for each keyword and to get keyword suggestions.

Competitor Analysis
Once you’ve come up with some terms and headlines, it’s time to see how your competition ranks in relation to those keywords. Make sure you are signed out of Google when you search for each term to see which dealerships show up on the first page or else your search result will be biased.

Content Strategy
Simply replicating what your competitors are doing isn’t going to get you ranked above them any time soon. Search engines love fresh content, so create a blog and draft social media posts at least twice a week. Try creating buyer personas profiles, for your ideal customers, in order to help you decide how you would go about addressing those customers’ concerns or filling their needs. Do your ideal customers have a salary of over six figures? What are their paint points? Why do they usually buy from you? Answering these types of questions will help you build your buyer personas.

There you have it! Remember, improving your search engine rank by SEOing your website doesn’t happen overnight. Give search engines the time to process your website, I’d say at least a week or so and check to see where you rank.

Do you have any suggestions for improving SEO ranking? Please share them in the comments section below!

If you aren’t too keen on search engine optimization, I’m here to help you whether you’re going to SEO your website yourself or outsource it. First thing's first, you must always have a strategy.

Pre-Plan
Search engines consider a number of factors when determining how to index. For example, the way the pages of your site link together (i.e. the information architecture) will determine how easy it is for search engines to crawl and index. Also, the speed at which your pages load is a strong signal to search engines about the usability of your site.

Keyword Research
What are customers typing into search engines in order to find you? You need to know what content is most appropriate to your target audience and what they are looking for. You also need to know what title to give your homepage, your product pages, your category pages, etc.

Keyword research is the process of finding out which search terms to go after to maximise the amount of traffic and, more importantly, conversions (form leads, sign-ups etc.) that your site attracts.
You can use the free Google Adwords Keyword Tool to retrieve approximate search volumes and ranking difficulty for each keyword and to get keyword suggestions.

Competitor Analysis
Once you’ve come up with some terms and headlines, it’s time to see how your competition ranks in relation to those keywords. Make sure you are signed out of Google when you search for each term to see which dealerships show up on the first page or else your search result will be biased.

Content Strategy
Simply replicating what your competitors are doing isn’t going to get you ranked above them any time soon. Search engines love fresh content, so create a blog and draft social media posts at least twice a week. Try creating buyer personas profiles, for your ideal customers, in order to help you decide how you would go about addressing those customers’ concerns or filling their needs. Do your ideal customers have a salary of over six figures? What are their paint points? Why do they usually buy from you? Answering these types of questions will help you build your buyer personas.

There you have it! Remember, improving your search engine rank by SEOing your website doesn’t happen overnight. Give search engines the time to process your website, I’d say at least a week or so and check to see where you rank.

Do you have any suggestions for improving SEO ranking? Please share them in the comments section below!