Author Archive

Nov 18

The Partnership Between Blogging and Social Media

Blogspot.com, Xanga.com, Facebook, MySpace…the list of blogging sites goes on and on, and it seems as if the list grows daily. What is this thing called “blogging” that seems to have taken over the world of social media? Blogging is a term used for web logging or creating journals that you post online for others to read and comment on. Within the past few years, video blogging has become ever popular because of its ease of use and widespread reach.

So how does blogging tie into social media? The answer to this question is simple…

Blogging brings the audience to the social media outlet like nothing else before it…and social media does the same for blogging…they scratch each other’s backs. Bloggers flock to social media sites because they know that is where the audience is, and social media grows by the minute because people are flocking there to read each other’s blogs.

Facebook and Blogging

Originally created as a way to keep college students in contact with each other, Facebook has evolved into a social media giant in a short amount of time. What is the draw? Who doesn’t like logging into their Facebook account and seeing what their friends all over the country or world are doing at that moment. It’s like being a fly on the wall that has been invited in! You can become a fan of your favorite author, join a group specifically for people who love tomato soup, or you can become a political activist.

Not only does Facebook allow you to create short blogs, also known as statuses, but you can also post links to websites you want to share or create notes (basically blogs) that you can “tag” and invite your friends to read. Mostly Facebook is a form of blogging that only allows people you like to read your entries, but there are other sites that are open to the prying and inquisitive eyes of everyone with a computer.

MySpace Blogging

MySpace has hundreds of millions of users, and each one of them has access to everything you write about on your MySpace profile (unless you make it private). MySpace is the internet hub for meeting, greeting and befriending people from all walks of life. Share music, links, videos, pictures and your inner most feelings through your personal profile. Rub elbows with your favorite band, movie star or athlete without ever having to introduce yourself.

Blogging on MySpace is easy because all you have to do is create a blog and post the link on social bookmarking sites (digg.com, reddit.com, delicious.com, mixx.com, diigo.com) so that anyone browsing the internet for something interesting to read will come upon the link to your blog, click on it, read the blog and get interested, entertained, awed, disgusted, intrigued or offended by what you’ve posted.

Blogging and Social Media: Can’t Have One Without the Other…

People use social media sites like Facebook and MySpace to promote their blogs, links and political ideals to a very large audience. Blogging not only allows people to express themselves online, it is also a crucial tool in the social media toolbox. Without people to blog and spread the word, social media sites wouldn’t really exist. Does anyone visit MySpace or Facebook for the advertisements? No. They go to see what their friends and families are doing, learning, and blogging about. The small, small world has gotten smaller thanks to social media and bloggers.

Blogging and social media are the Siamese twins of the internet…they cannot be separated without serious damage to one or the other, or both.

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Posted in Business

Nov 16

Inconsistency in Google Maps May Be Business Killers

You’ve spent countless hours trying to create a business that you want the world to know about. You’ve hired the best SEM firm in town, ran PPC advertising, and created back links to entice people to visit your site. You’re hoping that with more visitors, you’ll get to that coveted position of the first search page of search results on Google.com.

However, all of your hard work, sweat, tears, and dollars are riding on Google to present your business in a way that is professional and fair…and unfortunately, Google doesn’t seem to be getting the message.

From PDQ to pdq: Capitalization Issues

Your name is Paul David Quentin, a name that has been passed down through your family for years. You bear the name proudly and you want your business to bear the name as well. Unfortunately, there are several other businesses with the same initials, so what do you do? You use all capital letters in order to differentiate between yourself and the other businesses. Problem is Google Maps doesn’t like business names in all caps.

There are several instances in which business have registered their names with Google Maps in order to bring in more business, but when they go in search of the business name, the name has been reduced to lowercase letters. Why? Google Maps flags business names that use all capital letters and makes them all lowercase letters.

What does this mean for your business? People tend to overlook businesses written in lowercase letters because of the idea that lowercase means less important. Of course, this isn’t the case, but many businesses still fall victim to this misconception.

What used to be a proud family name has been reduced to a bland line of letters that no one seems to notice despite the amount of time and energy you’ve poured into it.

From McDonalds to Mcdonalds to McDonald’s: Lettering Inconsistency

Another problem with Google Maps is that it can’t seem to decide what to do with business names that have capital letters in the middle. McDonalds turns into mcdonalds or Mcdonald’s. McAfee turns into mcafee or Mcafee. Honestly, will an entire line of lowercase letters grab your attention on a page littered with business names and information? It’s doubtful.

Problems that Make a Business Suffer

So how does the inconsistencies in Google Maps cause problems for business listings? In order for their business names to appear as it does in advertisements, letter heads and other business literature, businesses have had to literally change their names. Example: PDQ turned into pdq on Google Maps, so the owner changed the name on the Google Maps listing to P.D.Q. in order to keep the lettering from turning into a blob of uninteresting blah.

So is Google Maps dealing with the present issues? Not in the foreseeable future- but businesses can adapt by changing the spelling of their names, adding spaces between letters or not using the Google Maps service at all.

This post was written by Danica Sorber, owner of DSorber Media Works.

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Posted in Business, Search Engines, SEO

Nov 06

Do You Know Your Phone Number’s Reputation?

Today’s super electronic communications world is overflowing with phone numbers for personal use, businesses, hotlines and prank calls. With so many different numbers floating out there, how do you make your own business number stand out among the billions of 7 digit codes? And more importantly, what are people saying about your phone number online?

Using the internet to find your own phone number is one way to figure out how to make your own number more visible to the consumer. Using directories, especially, is one way to create a ‘name’ for your business that anyone can read.

How-to Look up Your Number
If you’re curious to see how far your business information goes try typing your business phone number into a search engine. Sometimes the business name will pop right up, and sometimes you’ll get links to directories and other sites that provide business information online.

The Online Local Business Directory
Typing your town’s name into Google or Bing.com will bring up a plethora of local directories. You can choose one that is specific to your industry, or you can choose one that includes businesses from all over your town. Some of the local directories will even allow you to advertise for a small fee.

Adding your name to a local online business directory will allow people in your town to find you and read information about you, your business, your services and details about your business location and hours. Basically everything a customer might want to know about your business without having to call you to find out.

The Online Yellow Pages
The online Yellow Pages are just what they sound like they are. They are the online version of the giant yellow paper monstrosity you discover on your porch every 6 months. The online yellow pages are smarter, more eco friendly and contains business information on businesses all over the country.

If your business depends on consumerism from all over the country and not just your area, you’ll want to get your business information on the online yellow pages.

1-800-Reputation
There are websites out there that allow people to comment on the 1-800 numbers that call them, especially if their number shows up as ‘Unknown’. If your business calls a personal line, you can expect someone to write a comment, good or bad, about how the call was handled, when the call was placed (during dinner time, after 8 p.m.), and the actual call quality. These sites are important to businesses because your very reputation as a business it as stake. For phone calls that weren’t answers, consumers may type the phone number as a search query to find out who was calling them.

No one wants to do business with a company that calls families after 8 p.m. or is rude and discourteous on the phone. But everyone wants to do business with courteous, professional and compassionate customer service people that know their business and care about how their customer feels. Strive to have phone numbers that lead to positive reviews online.

Looking up business and personal information online is getting easier, but there is a caveat. Make sure that you aren’t listing information that you don’t want complete strangers to know.

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This post was written by Danica Sorber, owner of DSorber Media Works.

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Posted in Business, Et cetera

Nov 04

Thank You Mr. Roboto: The Robots.txt File

Everyone seems to think that everything you put online is assessable by anyone at anytime via a simple search query on a search engine like Google or Bing. This is scary when it comes to personal or private professional information. So what do you do to keep something online ‘off limits’ to the unwanted? Ever hear of a robots.txt file? No? Well here is a bit of information on this amazing little innovation.

What Is It?

A robots.txt file is a very useful file that keeps the grubby fingers of search engines from getting a hold of specific information on your domain. When a search engine ‘spiders’ (methodically searches the internet for up-to-date information), a well placed robot.txt file will prevent that pesky little internet arachnid from seeing anything you don’t want it to see.

Consider it a spider proof “web”.

What Are Some Examples?

Here are some simple examples of ways to insert robot.txt files into your domain.

>If you’d like to keep those pesky spiders from even entering your domain you would write the information below into the robot.txt file:

User-agent: *

Disallow:  /

If you want to keep the search engine spiders out of a certain area or directory on your domain you would enter the following information into the robot.txt file:

User-agent:  *

Disallow:  /aboutme/ (or whichever directory you would like to exclude)

If you’d like to add more directories to the list, you would just add another line of:

Disallow:  /stats/

Disallow:  /account/

Etc…

All in all, it’s pretty simple and very useful.

What Are The Benefits?

If your business runs on creating spam files, emails and other unsolicited communications, creating a robot.txt file for that particular area of your domain will keep that information from spreading. Businesses all over the globe run using methods that aren’t always appreciated by the general public, and if the general public were to learn these classified things, these businesses might very well go under. Who wants that for their business?

A robot.txt file will keep the search engine spiders from crawling all over your business’ sensitive information.

What Are The Warnings?

The effectiveness of the robot.txt file depends solely on whether or not that particular search engine recognizes the ‘authority’ of the file. Basically, the robot.txt file is only as good as the search engine doing the crawling. Not every search engine in operation will heed the ‘off-limits” status present in your domain. Keep that in mind.

Overall, robot.txt files are incredibly useful in today’s world of wide open information. Keep what you want kept secret and away from the prying multi-faceted eyes of the search engine spider.

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This post was written by Danica Sorber, owner of DSorber Media Works.

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Posted in Search Engines, SEO