They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I don’t know how they came up with that number, but the sentiment behind it hits home for me. As a professional photographer and designer in the Automotive Marketing industry, I get to take a lot of interesting pictures of cars. I’ve taken some pictures that I really love, and I know others loved them too…because they stole them. What’s an artist to do to protect his work from the roving bands of internet thieves, pirates and plunderers? The only truly effective method, from the standpoints of both time and money, is watermarking.

At this point, everyone has seen a watermark even if they aren’t aware of the name. As you can see in the example to the right, watermarking is the practice of placing a tag on an image to identify the author or brand. Short of digitally encoding information (which we’ll talk about another day) watermarking is the best way to add ownership to your images. It’s not a perfect system though.

Again, take the example to the right. No one is stealing that. A good photo-manipulator could probably edit out your credit, but it wouldn’t be perfect and there is easier prey. The problem is that while no one is stealing it, no one is going to share it either. The watermark overpowers the subject and leaves you with an ugly photo. If you’re using images for marketing, then the entire point is that they are seen, liked and shared. So clearly we need to watermark in a different way.

The more tasteful method of watermarking is putting it in a corner. It leaves the image itself largely untouched but still identifies ownership. Sure, these smaller, corner watermarks are more easily edited out or even cropped out, but then the photo will be fundamentally changed, allowing you to later prove you have the original if need be. Let the beauty of the photo be the primary interest to the viewer, it will benefit you more in the end as your photo is shared and spread. Because for every 1 person who edits or crops out your watermark, 10 more will leave it untouched.

So while the corner method offers less security, it’s the better choice 99% of the time. If you absolutely, positively, 100% need the photo to not be used without your permission, then don’t upload it to the internet. If Hollywood can’t protect their billion dollar babies, how secure do you really think you can be?

Original article about Watermarking on Wikimotive's blog under the title, "Watermarketing" by Abner Cavalcanti. 

Recent Google updates have made duplicate content a bigger problem than ever before. Sites that were doing well were suddenly struck down as their content was basically the same page recycled over and over. With all the fear around duplicate content, where do quotes fit in? I mean, a quote is inherently duplicate content, but quoting has value. Any Digital Marketing Company knows that if you write enough content for both pages and blogs, eventually you'll be compelled to quote. So how do you do it in a way that doesn't hurt your page? Luckily, Matt Cutts supplied the answer.

The first thing you have to do is put your quote in "blockquote" HTML coding. This code tells search engines that the included text is a quote. Most content management systems like Wordpress can do this with one click, but if yours can't, the code is <blockquote>YOURQUOTE</blockquote>.

Once you blockquote, the second step is to include a link to the source. This shows that you aren't stealing the information, you actually are giving credit where credit is due. This also makes where you find your quotes important because you don't want to have a lot of links to poor quality websites.

Thirdly, and most importantly, surround the quote with unique, quality content. If you have a 100-word quote and a 25-word setup, you'll get flagged. A quote should be the seasoning in the dish, not the meat. Even if the post is ABOUT the quote, the post still needs to have inherent value in and of itself.

Finally, use common sense. If you quote an entire article (or multiple articles) for your own web page, you'll get flagged for duplicate content and you'll only have yourself to blame.

According to Matt Cutts, Google really is okay with quoting. Just follow the tips above, and you shouldn't run into any trouble.

Original post about duplicate content SEO can be found on Wikimotive's blog under the title, "Quoting Without Getting Flagged For Duplicate Content."

Marketing with Twitter and Facebook should be less about selling a product, and more about selling your brand. Some companies don’t understand this and that’s why they believe social media isn’t valuable, because when you only use it to showcase sales, it isn’t. Other brands have a firm grasp on why people use social media and they enjoy stellar success as a result. Today, we want to take a look at one such comapany: Red Bull.

Go to Red Bull’s Facebook page and just start scrolling down. Do you notice anything a little odd? At the time of this writing (and this is true almost always) you can’t find a single can of Red Bull anywhere on the company’s feed. Not a one. In fact, many of the pictures don’t have any Red Bull branding at all, and some of the ones that do are pretty obfuscated. Still, the energy drink juggernaut has over 35 MILLION likes.

The lack of cans on Redbulls Facebook and Twitter is exactly why they do so well on social media. They aren’t selling a product, they’re selling their brand. By constantly posting pictures of action sports and sponsoring events like the now-infamous space jump, they have become synonymous with extreme events. This garners them a following exponentially larger than the one they would have gotten by just posting about their sugar-caffein-soda. Also note that every post (seen by some large amount of that 35 mil) does contain the words “Red Bull”, so while the advertising isn’t overt, it’s by no means hidden either.

Consider using Red Bull as an example of how to cultivate an image. Now, your business probably isn’t going to use extreme sports, but there should be some community you can appeal to. If nothing else, use Red Bull to prove to others in your company that, done right, you can have wild success without ever posting a picture of your physical product.

Original post about Red Bull Marketing can be found on Wikimotive's blog titled, "Wikimotive Case Study: Red Bull" by Abner Cavalcanti.

Annnnd we’re back! I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, a happy Chanukah, and/or a pleasant other seasonal holiday. Now that we’re all back to work, I figured we could ease into things by thinking about the future, namely 2013. It’s only a week away, and this is the perfect time to take a look at your strategies for SEO, marketing with Twitter and Facebook, and digital marketing in general.

Next Tuesday, you’re going to have a New Year’s resolution. It’s probably going to be one of the classic favorites like eating better, working out, or finally watching every James Bond film in consecutive order by release date. In addition to those though, you should endeavor to also have a New Year’s resolution for your business.

What should it be? Think it over, but don’t wait too long. Whatever changes you decide to implement should be ready to go on the first of the year. The mistake many people make is that they wait until the first to decide, and then they move slowly enacting, and then before you know it your business plan is collecting dust in the basement like that elliptical and that copy of Moonraker. Don’t let this happen to you.

Use this next week, which is a notoriously slow week for many industries anyway, to really reflect. No one knows your business like yourself, but it can be all too easy to loose your own insight when you’re rushing around putting out fires all the time. You have exactly a week until 2013, so resolve to do something great with the new year. Take a risk, trim some fat, shake things up a little bit. Hit the ground running January 1st and let the momentum carry you into a bold new year.

Original post about New Years Resolutions for Business posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title, "Looking to 2013" by Andrew Martin.

Like Y2K and Twilight: Breaking Dawn before it, the Mayan Apocalypse has thus far failed to bring about the end of the world. The solar flares didn’t fry us, the meteor didn’t send us the way of the dinosaurs, and Cthulhu remains slumbering his ancient slumber in the abyss. This surprising survival on the part of the human race has left many people asking, “What now?” Well, don’t worry friends. Wikimotive is a Digital Marketing Company that plans for contingencies.

With our continued existence, 2013 is suddenly looming large. Here are a few basic tips to start the new year off in style:

1. Create quality links. This cannot be said enough. Google is getting better at determining what an “organic” link really looks like. The fallout of this is that they will discount many, MANY links in 2013, meaning it will take fewer GOOD links to rank. Create those good links through well-optimized, USEFUL pages, and ditch the spam.

2. Get OTHERS social. At this point, I’m going to assume you’re on social media. Now that you’re on and posting regularly, the next trick is to get others involved. Search engines are taking into account social cues such as likes, shares and Retweets, so you need to have all those things. If your content is good, you’ll get them organically, but everyone needs a boost to start. Ask your employees nicely to help with your social media efforts, ask your family and friends. Don’t be annoying and don’t force it, but when you’re first starting out and building your audience, you’re going to need some help from somewhere. Make 2013 the year you hit that next follower milestone.

3. Be flexible. This is going to be the single most important thing for 2013. SEO is changing more rapidly than ever before and, as a result, cookie-cutter SEO services are becoming all but worthless. Going into this brave new world, you need to be able to kill your darlings. No matter how long you’ve been using a process, you need to be able to objectively evaluate it and cut it out if it’s not delivering the results it once did. Use A/B testing and keep yourself up to date. Don’t throw good money (and valuable time) after bad traditions.

Original post on 2013 Digital Marketing can be found on Wikimotive's blog under the title, "The World Didn't End...So Now What" by Dan Hinds. 

In light of recent developments, it seems that local Marketing Using Facebook is only going to keep gaining significance, so how can other services keep themselves relevant?

You may remember earlier this week, we wrote about Facebook announcing Facebook Nearby, a service that would essentially render Foursquare obsolete. Not one to go gently into that good night, Foursquare has already returned fire. The service plans on upping their personalization game to compete with Zuckerberg and his merry gang.

The best part of Foursquare’s plan? They plan on using data scraped from Facebook to fight against Facebook. That’s right, they’ll be pulling data from the social network’s own pages to hold onto their bit of the market share. Here’s how Foursquare described their ironic power-move:

“When your Facebook friends do public things on Foursquare, like write a tip, like a place, or take public photos, we’ll now use that to help power your recommendations when you search in Explore.”

The best part of this data collection is that it’s through Facebook, not Foursquare itself. This means that you will get social cues from Facebook friends even if they have never interacted with you on Foursquare at all. The new personalization features are coming out soon, so Foursquare users should be sure to update your iPhone or Android app. Once you do, you’ll have to connect your personal Facebook page to Foursquare to gain all of the social recommendation benefits.

What does this mean for your business? Not a lot yet, but this is the beginning of a struggle that will have major implications. If Foursquare is able to hold on to (or even reclaim) some of their user base, then they may be around for a while, and thus will need to be at least acknowledged when developing a local strategy.

Our prediction? Foursquare is plugging holes in a newly sinking ship. They’ll hang around for a while longer, but in the end they’ll either go under or just become another Facebook acquisition. Facebook remains the first, best choice for local marketing, crown soundly in place.

Original post about Facebook and Foursquare can be found on Wikimotive's blog under the title, "Foursquare Squares Off Against Facebook" by Zach Billings.

The answer, of course, is an Instagram. Listen, I’m not going to tell you that’s a great joke, simply a relevant one, because the social picture sharing and food-photo-filtering site has been making waves this week with their announcement that all your photos will soon be theirs. Everywhere, millions of voices are crying out against the image of Instagram CEOs diving Scrooge McDuck style into a big pool of blurry photos of cats and duck-faced girls. This might not be completely accurate, but the grim reality is that it’s not too far off either. I’m not sure why everyone is so surprised though, as anyone who does marketing with Twitter and Facebook knows that this is the same old song and dance.

Let’s quickly go over what’s happening exactly. As of the middle of January 2013, Instagram’s TOS will read, “You agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos … in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.”

There is no refusing, there is no opting out, and resistance is futile. If you don’t want your pictures shared and sold without your permission, your only recourse is to delete your page entirely. Some people are claiming this is unfair or a breach of privacy, I would agree that they’re right, but they are also living in the past. These days, if you are using a social service that is completely free, the most likely explanation is that the product being sold is YOU.

So what is the proper course of action as a business? There are two main things to consider.

The first is that, for all their complaining, most Instagram users aren’t going anywhere. This isn’t to say anything bad about them, the reality is that they love the service and they know the chances of their pictures being used are very, very slim. The risk/reward proposition is in their favor. So as a business, if you’re having success marketing on Instagram, you won’t need to stop for lack of an audience.

The second implication is more serious. You upload photos from your business, Instagram owns them. You wouldn’t legally sign away rights to your promotional materials in another context, so you need to be very careful about how you do it here. Be especially careful for the first month or two after the switch until we see exactly how it all plays out. With all the social media backlash, I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual language was altered before that January deadline.

Original post about Instagram Privacy posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title, "How Much Does a Hipster Weigh" by Dan Hinds. 

Facebook just keeps expanding their influence. This week, they have added a powerful new feature to their mobile version for both iOS and droid, changing the “Nearby” feature and making marketing using Facebook even more important for local businesses.

In the past, Nearby simply showed you where your friends had checked-in. The update will keep that functionality, but will add another layer, one that mimics Foursquare’s main function: showing and rating nearby businesses. When you access the Nearby option from the left-hand toolbar, you’ll be brought to the new UI. From there, you can find businesses by category. They will be rated based off of stars, check-ins, likes and other recommendations. As you’d expect, ratings from your personal network are weighed most heavily, so what your friends like will be an important factor in what you see. If none of your friends have recommendations for a category, then you’ll just see the global communities rankings. One additional neat feature is that Facebook is trying to block artificial rankings, so you won’t be able to rate a place unless you have checked-in there in the past.

With this update, it’s more important than ever that your business has a well optimized Facebook page. In keeping with their design philosophy, Facebook is loath to send users anywhere but their own site, so only businesses that have active Facebook pages will be indexed by Nearby. So make sure your business page is well established, make sure your categories are set, and (as always) try and get visitors to like and rate your business.

Facebook isn’t pushing this feature too hard yet (or even making it available to all users) but it’s only a matter of time. Once they really start, how long will Yelp and Foursquare be able to compete?

Original Article on Facebook Local Marketing published on Wikimotive's blog under the title, "Facebook Nearby Suddenly Important For Local Search."

Google has been trying to push Google+ since its inception, but they’ve had a hard time gaining any ground on the vast majority of businesses that do their marketing using Facebook. Last week, they added a new feature that they hope will make them more attractive and competitive. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the (maybe kinda sorta) salvation of Google+: communities!

Communities are Google’s answer to Facebook groups. They come in two main varieties, public or private. When you create a public  group, you set it so that everyone can post or so that only the moderators of the group can post. Private pages also have two versions, searchable or invisible.

Creating a community is easy. Click the community tab (pictured on the right here) on the left side of your Google+ page, and then select create a community. You then choose between a public or private community, for your business, you should select public and allow anyone to join. Once the page is created, you should personalize it with your business’s picture and information.

I know that I (and others) have derided Google+ in the past, but communities may be a game changer. With the advent of Google+ communities, we may finally see some good SEO benefit from the social media platform. Google promised big things and hasn’t delivered much (aside from Google+ local), but communities are a different animal. Private communities will be just that, but public communities will be fully indexed. That means all the work you do building your brand, all your posts and replies, will be able to be found in a Google search.

Facebook is great, but their groups may not be able to compete. If Google+ is able to offer the same level of users (which remains to be seen and is far and away their largest roadblock), then Google+ communities will become a no brainer, as they’ll offer all the benefit of social media with the additional boon of being indexed.

Do you think communities will change the way that the average user views Google+?

Original post about Google+ Communities can be found on Wikimotive's blog under the title, "Could Communities Make Google+ Relevant?" 

There’s a problem I have been seeing a lot lately among businesses who are late to adopting social media. They are excited, just raring to go (which is admirable) but they have no perspective on what they’re getting themselves into. They look up every possible social network and just start registering. Now, I’m a big proponent of social media as part of a successful automotive seo strategy, but it needs to be approached cautiously.

If you’re new to social media, or if you’re feeling overwhelmed by your current social presence, here are a few ways to get everything under control:

1. Start small. Social media is a great tool, but only if it is being used actively. I’d recommend you start with just Facebook and Twitter. These are the big two (if you want to start with just one, make if Facebook). Get in the habit of posting regularly and, even more importantly, get in the habit of interacting with fans and followers. When businesses spread themselves too thin, engagement is what suffers. Don’t let this happen to you. Stick with just one or two social networks until you truly feel you’ve got the time, knowledge and energy to expand.

2. Have a voice. This voice will largely depend on who is in charge of your social presence. If you have a talented, funny writer on your staff, then I’d say have them take charge of social media. Just be sure they have a firm grasp on business appropriate humor as well as your clientele’s sense of humor. If you’re in a more serious industry, then make sure the tone matches your business. For instance, an automotive dealership will be friends with pretty much anyone, so they can by funny but need to focus on mass appeal. A more tech based company will probably focus on IT related humor. A funeral home probably shouldn’t be making jokes at all, because for some reason a sale saying, “We’ll urn your loved one’s business!” doesn’t go over well. (If you have a better funeral home advertisement joke, by all means share it here.)

3. Post consistently. If you look through my blog and others here, you’ll find plenty of advice on the best times to post. If you really want to get the most out of social media, figure out the schedule that works for you and stick to it. Sporadic posting can hurt you and over-posting can be even worse. Keep it to a strict schedule and never slack on your content. Once you can do this for one or two social networks, then you should look into expanding further.

Original post about social media can be found on Wikimotive's blog under the title, "3 Tips to Avoid Social Media Overload."