General consensus in advertising today is usually that the most effective advertising is specifically targeted to a narrow field of people that you want to reach. For years this has been accomplished with complicated technology and it has definitely shown performance improvements from non-targeted to targeted ads. This level of targeting has never been available for Social Media Marketing before, but now Facebook is offering a brand new feature for pages called “enhanced post targeting.”

Before this update page managers had no way of specifically targeting certain demographics beyond region and language. Now you can create multiple content and posting strategies based on who you are marketing to. This will obviously make content creation and management a much more difficult job but it will also be much more effective.

The new options include gender, relationship status, education, workplace, language and geography. They have also changed up the Geography option. Before no one could see your post unless they were in the region you had selected to target. Now all users can see your post on your page timeline but it will only be pushed to users news feeds if they fall within the targeted area.

This is great news for Social media marketing, it gives us the ability to greatly increase social engagement by catering your content specifically for a targeted segment of the population. If done correctly you should be able to appeal more to your target demographic, increasing engagement and eventually increasing sales. Brands who market to a wide range of people will probably benefit the most from this update, because they will be able to create multiple strategies that will cater specifically to each segment of their target audience.

I also want to repeat that all your content regardless of its targeting will remain visible to everyone on your timeline so be careful what you post. You also obviously have the option of hiding things from your timeline. Facebook is only just rolling out this update and currently only 1% of pages have the update at this point. For this of you lucky enough to have these options available to you, make good use of them.

Original article about Enhanced Post Targeting posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Facebook Reveals New Enhanced Post Targeting For Brand Pages.

Listen, sorry about the headline, that’s not actually what this is about (though it is a true story)…but it proves a point: people can’t help but click on weird news headlines!

We all know blogging is a crucial aspect of any business’s search engine optimization strategy. It is a great way to product unique, engaging content. A good blog will be the seed for all your future SEO processes, growing other efforts like your social media. A well written blog, syndicated to your Facebook and Twitter pages, will organically funnel traffic to your main page. The trick? Producing content that people want to click!

How do you make clickable content? For starters, remember that no one will care if you write about your next big sale or the new inventory you just got in. You need to write blogs that jump out at people, blogs that they can’t help but want to read.

In our experience, the best place to get ideas for engaging content is in the news. You can’t just go pick any random news story though. Sad to say, but most people could not care less about politics or world news. What really gets people’s interest is the bizarre. Find the strangest, craziest news from the web, and your guaranteed to garner some interest.

Luckily, you don’t have to scour the web for your weird news, there are plenty of places that make a habit of weird news aggregators. We have said it before, but Reddit.com is a great place to find interesting, breaking stories. Another great option is the Huffington Post, they actually have an entire section devoted entirely to weird news. If you search around, you’ll find plenty of places, just remember, the weirder the better!

Original story about writing interesting headlines for your blog posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Man Dresses As Goat, Plays With Herd!

Social media is a broad term that covers a lot of sites on the web these days. Its a term that has a lot of connotation attached to it, and recently, companies have been paying big money for anything that shows a hint of success in the world of social media. Need an example? Look no further than whizz kid and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg paying a cool BILLION to acquire Instagram. And now, Google is looking to get in the game by acquiring the social media monitoring software, Wildfire.

Wildfire is, at it’s heart, an advertising company. It’s main function is to help people and (more importantly) business, distribute content and manage success across all of the major social media networks. The company is roughly four years old and has experienced astronomical success, already servicing clientele like Virgin, Sony, and Amazon.

The product director for Google, Jason Miller, indicated that the purchase will be a boon for Google’s already massive bank of advertising customers

“With Wildfire, we’re looking forward to creating new opportunities for our clients to engage with people across all social services. We believe that better content and more seamless solutions will help unlock the full potential of the web for people and businesses.”

Google is already the go-to-guy when it comes to SEO, and now they’re looking to become the number one player in the social media marketing game as well. This isn’t a huge surprise really, if you look at Google’s own trends, social media has been becoming more and more relevant with every update. So now, social media is the most important aspect of a good SEO strategy, and Google owns the top social media posting and monitoring service.

Well played.

What did the purchase do to the Google coffers? Well, compared to Facebook they got off pretty light. The flat purchase price was reported as $250 million, but now sources are reporting that it may be as high as $400 million when you take into account contractual bonuses.

According to Wildfire, the purchase will have no effect on its service or its customers.

Original story about Google buying Wildfire was posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Google Purchases Wildfire

Digg has been trying to make a comeback recently and even went so far as to completely redesign their site in the hopes that they can climb back towards the top of the social media ranks. Once upon a time Digg was at the top, it was the place to be. Unfortunately for them arguments over preferential treatment of some users and poor design had them nearly on the brink of extinction recently.

Then Diggs ownership changed hands and lots of changes were made. They did away with the endless text columns with numbers telling you how many time a story was dug. The new design is a complete departure form their old style but that is the only thing it separates itself from. Now Digg looks like every other content site out there with big photos and an online magazine type look. Of course this is definitely an improvement, the site is easier to read, the large photos make it more visually appealing and the Digg numbers are much less prominent, cutting down on the competition factor and turning the site into a place to read top news stories.

Some of the changes weren’t so great however. Oddly you now have to use Facebook to login now. In one story I read on this subject someone described this new login system as having to get a NewYork Times Subscription in order to read The LA Times. There’s definitely still some work to be done on the new site as well, some users have complained about bugs and error messages. Mainly Digg users biggest beef with the redesign is that everything that made Digg what it was is now gone, and in its place is a generic online news site which still has some bugs to work out.

Are there too many ways to share on the internet these days? Is there even any room for Digg to squeeze itself back into the mix? Unfortunately I don’t think Digg is going to make a resurgence, they no longer offer anything that we can’t get somewhere else.

Original story about the decline of Digg posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Most People Don’t Digg The New Digg

Are you interested in revving up your social media presence? Are you falling flat on Facebook, tanking on Twitter, and blogging for an audience of one? Check out the new comprehensive guide to becoming the king of your social media kingdom. With Wikimotive Social Media Spellbook For Marketing Wizards, you’ll be making the magic happen in no time.

Our ebook is broken up into five easy to swallow chapters:

How Do You Measure Up?–In this section we cover how to analyze the competition. We isolate the important factors to search for in your competitors  strategies, so you can put together a winning plan to come in at #1.

Content is King—It’s pretty straightforward, in today’s social media marketing world, producing quality content is the most important part of any strategy. In this section, we explain how to produce superior content across all platforms. From blog posts to infographics, we give you step-by-step instructions on how to create content that will get you the social media following you need to be successful.

Where to post what—Now that you have killer content, what do you do with it? In this section, we cover what content thrives on which network, and how to syndicate content across multiple networks in the most effective way possible.

Posting and monitoring—Once your content is posted, your job isn’t over yet! In this section, we cover how to schedule and keep tabs on all your social networks with minimal stress and effort. It may seem like a big job, but with our simple tips, we can help you fit social media into your day to day schedule without losing all your hair.

Social media networking—Everything is  analyzed, created, posted and accounted for, so what’s left? In the final section, we teach you how to spread your social media presence across the web. There are so many different venues to showcase yourself, make sure your taking advantage of every possible opportunity!

If you want to be a social media pro follow this link to download your very own copy.

Original article about social media marketing posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title The social Media Spellbook For Marketing Wizards.

Websites that have been established for a while always have the advantage over a new website when it comes to ranking with Google. Google tends to trust websites that have been around longer, and these websites have had more time to build good back links, which can make them difficult to compete with. Fortunately there are ways to compete with good Automotive SEO techniques, if you happen to have a brand new website.

Start by making sure you are targeting the right keywords. It can be very difficult to rank well for competitive keywords if you have a new site. Don’t give up on these popular keywords of course you should include them on your pages and in your strategy, but you should also target some less popular ones that your competitors aren’t using. For example if your competitor was ranking for the keyword Honda Cars Massachusetts you might want to optimize one of your pages for Honda Cars Boston Massachusetts. This keyword may not get nearly as many searches as the broader keyword your competitor is ranked for but it’s much better to be #1 with a less popular keyword than on the third page for a popular one.

Spread out as much as possible. Make as many pages targeting as many secondary search terms as you can. Once you start getting higher ranking for some of the longer keyword phrases your site will start to become relevant to a topic in Googles eyes. The more you build your sites reputation as an authority on that topic the easier it will get to go after those competitive keywords. Also remember that people who search for longer keyword strings are usually people who are further down the sales funnel and might be ready to buy very soon.

Once again we come back to the issue of content. This whole exercise is futile if your customer gets to one of your landing pages and immediately clicks away. Make sure you are offering something useful to those who would click on your listing in Google. Create pages that solve a problem or provide the answer to the question that the keyword or search phrase asks. Getting your new site to the top of Google doesn’t have to be hard if you use the right strategy. You just have to work on building your reputation with Google by using good content to optimize for a wide range of somewhat less important search terms.

Original article about SEO for new websites was posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title How To Establish Your New Website In Search.

As marketers, weʼre always looking for the hottest new thing to get our brand in front of people. For ages, we had signage and print ads, then we progressed into the auditory realm with the radio, then it was video ads on TV, and finally, the ultimate advertisers playground: the internet. Online marketingis the fastest growing advertising area, and the most versatile. We shouldnʼt get so involved with the internet that we forget about the real world though; lets look at an example of a company who is taking an interesting new tact IRL.

Dunkin Donuts is the trendsetter in question. For those of you who arenʼt located in the New England area, Dunkin Donuts is a your basic donut and coffee shop. Theyʼre ubiquitous in Mass. especially, with most towns having AT LEAST two or three. They advertise pretty much everywhere in the Northeast, but itʼs in their new, Korean locations that the innovating is taking place.

The company has created a system that brings its product straight to your nose. In an effort to recreate that craving you get when you smell coffee being freshly brewed, Dunkin has created scent cartridges that carry the familiar aroma. These cartridges are located on public transit in South Korea and they fill the area with a beautiful coffee scent every time a Dunkin Donuts commercial plays over the PA. They dubbed this creation, “Flavor Radio!”

It sounds a little strange, almost sneaky, but the reality is that it worked. In fact, it worked big time. Flavor Radio gave the chain a 29 percent boost in coffee sales for its duration!

What does this have to do with online marketing? Not a whole let (at least until they invent the long touted smell-o-vision) but donʼt let that stop you from using it as inspiration. We have so many senses, so many different ways of perceiving the world, itʼs a shame to place any artificial limitations on yourself. Even online, you should always be moving forward, not just producing, but innovating!

Original blog about innovation in marketing posted on Wikimotive's blog titled Don’t Just Produce, Innovate!

Facebook has had their analytics tool called, Facebook Insights, for a while now, and since its conception it has grown more and more complex. Insights are now able to show Facebook Page Admins all kinds of useful information which can be a huge help when trying to hone your Facebook marketing strategy. However it can also get a little overwhelming, when showing it off to your boss or a client, data overload is a real concern.

Facebook insights can give you an excellent look at the over all health of your page and some real insight into how things actually work on Facebook but you have to know what you’re looking at. After selecting the date range and downloading your spreadsheet you’ll find several of the metrics are broken down into daily, weekly, 28-day, and monthly increments.

What’s confusing about the spreadsheet is that if you downloaded one specifically for July 2012 and you take a look at July 10th in the monthly column you’re actually seeing the last 28 days ending in July 10th. even though you’re looking at a spreadsheet for July, in the monthly column you might be getting numbers from June. If you just want the monthly total make sure you’re looking at the column for the last day of the month.

The most important metrics included in your Facebook Insights should be tracked weekly if not daily. Here is a list of some metrics that you should definitely be paying attention to.

People Talking About This: The number of people sharing stories about your page. This included liking your page, posting to your wall, taking action on one of your posts (liking, commenting, or sharing), RSVPing to your event, mentioning your page, photo tagging, or checking in at your place.

Engaged Users: This is the number of people who actually engage with your page, this includes any click or story created.

Total Reach: The total number of people who have seen any content associated with your page.

Original article about Facebook Insights Posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Deciphering Facebook Insights

SEO is a like a clock, always shifting, and kept true by machinery fathomless to the general population. Even people who make a living learning these intricate machinations are, at best, constantly battling to stay relevant. The hidden algorithms utilized by search engines like Google keep us on our toes, demanding constant vigilance and supreme dedication to the craft. That’s what makes search engine optimization a full time job…one best handled by experts.

Searchmetrics, a company dedicated to peeling back the curtain, has released a study that does much to answer the question: what factors are relevant for a good ranking on Google? The company has performed exhaustive research on, “10,000 selected top-keywords, 300,000 websites and millions of links, shares and tweets.” Let’s break down a couple of their most important findings.

First, we want to cover the old guard: backlinks. Despite a lot of worry around the industry, backlinks remain incredibly relevant. In fact, the number of backlinks remains the second most important factor overall. It’s not just about quantity though. The study shows that links with stop words and nofollow are also significant factors in a page’s ranking.

If backlinks is second overall, what’s number one? It may come as a surprise if you haven’t been steeping yourself in industry news of late. It turns out; social media is far and away the most important part of any SEO strategy today. Specifically, your page being shared on Facebook has the largest impact of any single factor. Following shares are comments, likes, and Tweets.

What does this mean for the industry? Businesses that have been ignoring social media are going to find themselves slipping in the ranks, if they haven’t already slipped. This study makes it clear that links ARE NOT ENOUGH. To remain competitive in today’s market, you MUST become heavily involved in social media.

This trend will ultimately make the internet a better place. With social media shares ruling the roost, you’ll see far less spammy content and pages of useless links. Wikimotive has long upheld that content is king, and this has never been more true. To succeed in SEO today, you need to succeed in social media, and to succeed in social media, you need to produce quality content that engages your audience so that your shares (and likes, favorites, Tweets, reTweets, etc.) organically grow.

Original article on social media and SEO posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title There’s A New #1 Factor For SEO Ranking!