Siri, which can do everything from taking dictation for text messages to writing emails and scheduling meetings, has left digital marketers wondering how it will change online search behavior and what, if any, effect it will have on traditional SEO techniques.

The issue will only be compounded further in the coming years as mobile searches are expected to increase from nine percent to 20 percent of total queries by 2012, according to recent report from researchers at RBC Capital Markets. As mobile searches and voice recognition technologies gain popularity, the following marketing strategies can help companies increase the likelihood of ranking at the top of mobile search results:

Optimize social profiles

In some instances, Siri’s search results have nothing to do with a company’s current organic and pay-per-click rankings. For example, when searching for a venue, Siri’s search results are based upon a searcher’s physical location and data from Yelp. Because of this Siri won’t be sending customers your way even if your business ranks number one for “best local food.”

Advice: To better your chances of becoming one of Siri’s suggested answers focus efforts on strengthening content on geographically-based applications such as Foursquare, Facebook Places, Google Reviews and Yelp.  As Yelp recommendations are embedded within Siri’s current software, it’s recommended that companies optimize these profiles in order to target to mobile searchers.

Interact with customers

Simply setting up a profile on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks isn’t enough to spark communication in today’s digital age. Rather, businesses need to provide open communication with customers to establish an online presence.  Apple is reportedly working on Siri’s application programming interface, which will ultimately be the  protocol through which Siri would interact with other services (ie. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and apps. Be ready!

Advice: Research the applications your competitors use to interact with their audience and ensure you have a strong representation on these because soon Siri will be operating just about everywhere. Following this, be sure to monitor the activity your social networks receive and respond to customer feedback – both positive and negative.

Earn customer reviews

Companies looking to rank high on mobile search results should focus on acquiring genuine reviews by building an online fan base. Offer customers reasons to use your services through special discounts, incentives and most importantly, high-quality customer service.

Advice: Encourage customers to review your services online. While this is the most time consuming marketing tactic, it is also the most influential to Siri SEO. Review-based websites such as Yelp and Urban Spoon have installed monitoring systems to block businesses from posting spam or stuffing inauthentic reviews on profile pages.

Create a mobile site

 This isn’t newsworthy advice, yet many companies have withheld developing a mobile version of their website for one odd reason or another. But as mobile searches are expected to grow exponentially in the upcoming years, the clock is ticking. Thankfully, creating a mobile site is quick and easy with publishing platforms such as WordPress and Drupal.

Advice: When designing the site, clearly feature your business’s contact information and operating hours directly from the homepage. This will improve Siri’s chances of locating the pertinent information to deliver to its searchers, and in turn help deliver customers to your doorstep.

Claim your business listing

The quickest and simplest way to enhance your rankings in mobile search (and online) is to list your business through the main search engines: Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Advice: Registering is free and some allow companies to add photos and videos to help personalize their advertisements.

Santa’s Google Search Tips Rap

Siri: The Holiday Horror Movie (Trailer)

FedEx Guy Throwing My Computer Monitor

MTV – Sex is no Accident – Flying Girl

Some stories this week you many have missed:

Tech
The best and worst tweets of the year
Steve Jobs Wins Posthumous Grammy Award
Will Computers Be Able To Read Your Mind in Five Years? IBM Thinks So.
Google, Mozilla Renew Firefox Search Deal For 3 More Years

Search and Social
Bud Light Searches Facebook For a “Correspondent” to Cover Super Bowl
Global Happiness Is Declining… At Least On Twitter
Hitwise: For The Third Year In A Row, Facebook Was The Top-Searched Term In The U.S.
Brand Google+ Pages Showing up in Search Results (SERPs)

Didn’t know that could happen? Well, according to Google the company must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), under which children younger than 13 must provide the permission of a parent or guardian before giving out personal information online.

In a letter tittled ” Google, thanks for making my daughter cry” posted on Reddit, the girl’s father blasted Google for not clearly stating the age restrictions during the sign up process. ”I set up a gmail account for my daughter so she could send email to her grandparents,” he wrote.

The decision has sparked a bit of controversy and also reopened a long dormant debate over how young is too young for the Internet.

Google’s decision is a bit strange especially when you consider the “Dear Sophie” campagin they ran last year.

Two can play that game. Kremlin wants protestors to Like them.

After a tumultuous year in which many uprisings around the world were waged through social media, it appears Russian officials  are trying to quell anti-government sentiment by posting heart-felt messages on Facebook regarding possible violations at polling stations during the December 4 election of President Dmitry Medvedev.

The British newspaper “The Telegraph” first reported the post and the continued subtle dialogue being waged by the president across his official Facebook page.

“People have the right to express their views which is what they did yesterday,” wrote Mr Medvedev. “I don’t agree with the slogans or the declaration that rang out at the meetings. Nevertheless, instructions have been given by me to check all information from polling stations regarding compliance with the legislation on elections.”

Bad news for Moscow: The vast majority of comments were negative.

Russians play rough over Twitter

In other Russian social media news, the BBC reported that hijacked PCs may have helped drown out online chat about Russian election protest. Trend Micro researcher Maxim Goncharov discovered pro-Kremlin Twitter messages were being auto-generated by computers, spamming conversations and pushing down the voice of dissent. The bots used the protesters’ hashtag #триумфальная (Triumfalnaya) to drown conversations, while posting up to 10 messages per second, according to the report.

If at first you don’t succeed, try something underhanded and illegal.

You don’t always have that kind of time. In fact, often you’ll be pulled into a client meeting at the last minute with barely any analytic information at hand.

I found my process for handling these types of situations to be very useful in quickly identifying marketing opportunities.  Essentially, I look for low hanging fruit. This  “quick audit” process can vary for each website as well as for each marketing channel. However, there are some some core methods to use for quickly identifying opportunities to improve SEO.

The trick is to know what to look for and what tools, other than analytics, are at your disposal.

1. Know the Site
What to look for: Traffic and Demographics
Free Tool:  AdPlanner

Learn a little about the website and how it is performing.  Doubleclick’s Ad Planner is great for this and all you need to access it is a free account with Google.  For sites that are established, it can generate a quick overview on traffic, demographics and user interest.  All great fodder that will help you speak intelligently about a website.

2. On-Site SEO
What to look for: Optimized Tagging and Page Speed
Free Tools: Mozbar and Google Page Speed

Take a few minutes to browse the site in Chrome or Firefox using SEOmoz’s Toolbar, named Mozbar.  Get a quick ‘Page Analysis’ for the homepage, category and/or product pages that seem important to the success of the website.

Ammo: Look to see if page titles, descriptions, and headers are optimized for search engines.  Simply click the Mozbar and make note of those that can be better optimized.

3. For Page Speed,  try Google’s chrome extension while browsing the site but Google also has an online version that works just the same.

Ammo: Drop in the URL of a landing page and look for a rating below 70.  The page speed tool will generate a prioritized list of technical suggestions for improving page speed.  You may discover some crucial flaws in the page that is ultimately hindering the pages ability to rank in search engines.

4.  Brief Keyword Analysis
What to look for: Keyword rankings and traffic from Search Engines
Free Tool: SEMRush

Just plug in a domain into SEMRush and get a free (but limited) view on all sorts of useful data.  I particularly like to reference the approximate number of keywords (this number shows keywords ranked in the top 20 of Google search results), the approximate amount of monthly visitors from Google, and competitors in organic search.

The competitor research can be especially useful for gauging a site’s performance in search.  I usually make a note of how many keywords competitors have in Google’s top 20 and show the comparison in a chart.  SEMRush can chart this for you with their ‘Competition Graph.’

Ammo:  Toggle the drop down menu and click on any of the data points to highlight areas you wish to call attention to (I mostly use ‘Num of Keywords’ and ‘SE Traffic’).  Take some quick screenshots or make a few notes and move on.

5. ProTip – literally – you have to subscribe to SEMRush’s pro plan ($69.95/mo) in order to unlock the data necessary for this process.  With this access, I like to export ‘Organic Keywords’ to a spreadsheet (the Pro subscription limits reports to 10,000 results).

Open the sheet and format the data in a table. Sort the position by smallest to largest. Scroll down and look for when the keywords start ranking at 11. This indicates keywords that rank on page two of Google search results. Make note of the row number (5,237) and compare this number to the total number of keywords in Google’s top 20 (158,406).

Ammo: With this data we can say that approximately 3 percent of MacWorld’s top 20 keywords are ranking on page one.  Furthermore, we can assume that by improving SEO efforts, we can increase the percentage of page one keywords and significantly increase the amount of targeted traffic to the Macworld domain.  To support this claim, I usually cite a variety of third-party case studies that show the difference in traffic between page 2 and page 1 search results.

6. Link Data
What to look for: Link Diversity
Free Tool(s): Open Site Explorer

When gathering link data for a website, there are a number of metrics one can use to evaluate the quality of a link building campaign.  Try focusing on link diversity.  It more accurately reflects a website’s link building efforts than sheer link volume.  It also helps to pit those metrics against industry competitors.  SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer can provide some good data and compelling visual aids to support your findings for this process.  This tool is free but limited to the number of reports generated.

Sticking with the Macworld versus MacRumors comparison, here’s how I would quickly gauge link diversity using Open Site Explorer. Compare Link Metrics by entering the two domains.  Scroll down to Root Domain Metrics.  Make a note of the Total Linking Root Domains and Linking C Blocks.

Ammo: The site with the higher number of Linking Root Domains generally has higher trust and ranking potential.  The site with the higher number of Linking C Blocks generally has greater link diversity – which means links are coming from many related site groups.

If you have any questions, please send me an email at jared@bluefountainmedia.com or leave a comment in the space provided below.

Sometimes it’s hard to keep pace with evolving technologies. We get it, not everyone understands every concept. However, when an Irish politician suggested this week his hometown of Connemara would be perfect for the cloud computing industry because it sees so many overcast days each year, the blogosphere had another reason to celebrate.  It’s fun making fun of inane politician’s comments.

According to a report from  Britain’s Telegraph newspaper, Councilman Seamus Tiernan believed the Connemara area would be perfect for cloud computing because it has dense cloud for nine months of the year. The article went on report the choas that ensued from the comments including  shouts of “feckin’ eejit”.

Wow, really?

Well, not really. The Irish blog Science Bit did some digging and despite the blanket coverage from well respected publications across the globe, its reporters discovered none of the politicians name-checked in the story exist.

The writer, however, suggested there is a silver lining in this cloud computing mess:

Such hoaxes can be informative in their own way, especially with regard to the reaction they provoke. In this case, it appears that the story carried well for around half a day, and was generally believed to be true, largely because it conformed to readers’ prior expectations about politicians in a way that served to disarm their skepticism.

Nice spin.

 Siri Hates a Woman’s Right to Choose.

Really, et tu Siri?

Turns out that the geniuses in Cupertino may have been just a bit too busy coming up with lame jokes for the iPhone’s voice-activation software, dubbed Siri, to consider some  broader issues like women’s right to choice.

In New York City, ask Siri, “Where can I get an abortion?” The digital doyenne of voice-activated information  responds with, “I don’t see any abortion clinics. Sorry about that.”

Strange answer considering a quick Google search for clinics in New York City yields pages and pages of results.

Others have noticed in Washington D.C. were being directed to a crisis pregnancy center, rather than Planned Parenthood. Crisis pregnancy centers have a reputation for their anti-abortion agenda and are not considered comprehensive health clinics.

Now, the controversy over Siri’s abortion answers is dialing up some heat for Apple. The site SignOn.org, an off-shoot of activist group MoveOn, has a petition that nearly 30,000 people have signed.

Siri’s abortion answers are a glitch, says Apple.

James Bond Likes Facebook

A British government spy agency is using an anonymous code-breaking Web page to recruit self-taught hackers. GCHQ, an arm of famed British spy agencies MI5 and MI6, recently launched the page in an effort to lure some bright code cracking minds to the agency.

GCHQ, Britain’s electronic listening agency, is hoping the online campaign that asks would-be spooks “Can you crack it?”, will act as a filter between it and potential talent.

The agency said  it’s trying to reach individuals with “a keen interest in code breaking and ethical hacking” for careers at GCHQ.

Bonus  Video

Black Friday Shopping Prank

Got some fun stuff for us? Send a note to tim@bluefountainmedia.com or leave a comment below.

Shocking, right? A report by Campaign Monitor suggests that mobile email use has grown from four percent of the market to 20 percent in two years. The bottom line is, if you’re not optimizing your email marketing for mobile, you’re missing opportunities.

After much research and deliberation, I’ve come to the conclusion that the easiest and best way to handle mobile optimization (for now) is to improve your regular email design to be mobile-friendly. Ensuring that your emails look good on both desktop computers and mobile devices is a delicate balancing act, so here are a few tips to help you out:

• Subject line: Make sure the main message of your subject line is within the first 15 characters, because for a lot of mobile clients, that’s all they’re going to see.
• Layout: Use a simple, stacked layout as opposed to a multi-column layout.
• Width: Keep the width to 600 px or less.
• Font: Use a font size of 14 pts or higher for body copy and 30 pt for headers. Anything smaller than 12 pts will be automatically resized to 12 pts on Apple devices, causing text to wrap and email designs to break.
• Buttons and links: Make buttons and links big and “clickable.” According to Apple, the ideal size for a clickable area is 44 px. That’s not to say that all buttons have to be 44 px, just that there shouldn’t be any buttons or links closer together than 44 px. Otherwise you run the risk of a “mistap.”
• Click-to-call: Use a plain text phone number or a click-to-call button. It stands to reason that mobile users are likely to have a high conversion rate over the phone. The idea here is to make it as easy as possible for them to do that.
• Ergonomics: Remember that ergonomically, you’re designing for people’s thumbs. Keep that in mind as you’re placing important elements such as call-to-action buttons. For instance, they shouldn’t go in the lower right corner because it’s uncomfortable to click there.
• General best practices: Most of the best practices for regular email design still apply. Keep the copy to a minimum, use images wisely, balance images with plain text, use alt text, and always – always – include a plain-text version.

Another interesting option we’re exploring is special code that will automatically optimize the email for the screen it’s being viewed on. This method is somewhat complicated and also requires some tweaking to your email design, but the folks over at Campaign Monitor explain it quite well. We’ll be testing this in house and writing a follow-up post with our results, so stay tuned!

As the shopping masses head for the strip malls and big box stores this Friday, it’s important for marketers to remember how all these people ended up there together in the first place: we told them to go!

Black Friday got its name because traditionally most retailers operate in the red for nearly 11 months of the year and only begin to see a profit (the lucky ones at least) once they swing open their doors the day after Thanksgiving to kick off four weeks of delirious, and mostly gratuitous, shopping. Somewhere along the the way some savvy marketing professionals started piecing together shopping habits after Thanksgiving and gave name to the great shopping migration making it even more popular.

In fact, retailers in the United States make approximately one-fifth of their total sales during the holiday season; ringing up nearly half a trillion dollars. That’s a lot of Legos and sweaters.

In recent years the migration to online shopping has seen marketers push forward an alternative to the often chaotic shopping experience that occurs on Black Friday through the creation Cyber Monday. The idea, so the thinking goes, is to persuade people to stay at home and shop online.

As a marketer it is smart to determine the best ad planning path for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday and proceed from that point. Of course. some measurable statistics will help.

A quick scan of this chart reveals that Black Friday is five times more popular than Cyber Monday, according to data (above ) from Google Trends. Obviously millions of Americans are ready to part with their money the day after Thanksgiving to lavish gifts on friends and family, so you should be planning your holiday promotions and campaigns accordingly.

From PPC to Display Advertising

Black Friday should be a big focus for pay-per-click campaigns, email newsletters, display ads, blog articles and other marketing channels.

In the past month interest for Black Friday has risen dramatically while Cyber Monday remained rather flat. Pay-per-click and display ads targeting Black Friday are expected to receive substantially more impressions than those for Cyber Monday. If your budget only allows for you to focus on one of these days, your efforts will be most effective targeting Black Friday.

We have already seen spikes in organic search engine traffic for related phrases on internal and client websites so it’s not too early or too late to start your promotions.

Social Media Makes an Entrance

This year marks the first time social media is going to play a major role in both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. LivingSocial announced  it will offer discounts from national businesses such as Verizon Wireless, Electronic Arts Inc. and Sketchers USA Inc.,  which is a  move away from the more local fare they’ve so far concentrated on such as restaurants and weekend getaways.

Instead, the company will provide national brands access to social media-savvy customers who might otherwise choose to remain at home instead of braving the crowds.  This is also the type of marketing brands love because it can be shared and spread across Facebook and Twitter for a nominal cost.

Chicago-based Groupon, LivingSocial’s largest competitor, says they will skip Black Friday promotions this year; so picking an online deal firm to allocate your marketing spend just got a little easier.

While much has been written about the many different ways to effectively float your message and brand across the social media space,  little is being offered about the functionality of design in social media integration.

With that in mind, I’ve compiled some thoughts on how to increase your return on investment when designing and configuring social media sharing buttons.

A few best practices to always consider:

• Do NOT use social media icons to simply link out to profiles. This is not only out-dated but also minimizes the potential value of social media integration.
• As much as possible, show the number of times a piece of content has been shared or the number of Likes, or the number of followers.
• When pieces of content have very few shares, or a user has few followers there are two options: Either round-up everyone you can to increase the number of shares,  or do not display the number of Likes, followers, ect.
• When placing share icons in the masthead, or the footer (site-wide): ensure that the icons are sharing a unique URL (the website homepage, Facebook page, LinkedIn group, Twitter profile follow) and not the page they are on.
• Snippets should be customized for optimized sharing of content. By default, a share button will share the page title of a page, whereas we should be sharing, say, the product name and description.

There are two main types of uses for social media sharing buttons:

• Share this piece of content/page that I am looking at right now.
• Follow, Like, join, subscribe to the entity providing this content.

Below are different design options for both these types of buttons and where to go to configure them.

Sharing Content

•  Facebook – Configuration Page

• Facebook provides three elemental options:
• Standard -This displays social text to the right of the button and friends’ profile photos below it. Minimum width: 225 pixels. Default width: 450 pixels. Height: 35 pixels (without photos) or 80 pixels (with photos).

• The Button Count - Displays the total number of Likes to the right of the button. Minimum width: 90 pixels. Default width: 90 pixels. Height: 20 pixels.

• Box Count -The box count displays the total number of Likes above the button. Minimum width: 55 pixels. Default width: 55 pixels. Height: 65 pixels.

Additionally: you can change “Like” to “Recommend” and add a “Send” button (which is like an “Email This” feature but instead emails to your Facebook friends).

•  Twitter – Configuration Page

The idea behind the Tweet button is to allow people share content on Twitter without having to leave the page. It also helps to promote strategic Twitter accounts at the same time while driving traffic to your website.

• Twitter has three display options:

Twitter share vertical button.

Twitter share horizontal button.

Twitter share no count button.

Place the client’s Twitter username under “Recommend people to follow”.

•  Google + – Configuration Page

Adding Google +1 to pages  helps your site stand out and allows visitors to recommend and share your content on Google Search.Try placing the button above the fold and near the title of the page. Visitors eyes usually move to this spot first. Also, it can be effective to place the +1 button at the end and the beginning of an article or story.

There are 12 different size configurations available. Here are the basic content configurations:

Medium + Bubble:

Tall + Bubble:

Medium + none: (20px wide)

•  LinkedIn – Configuration Page

More than 100 million members use LinkedIn to manage professional identities while building and engaging with a chosen professional network. Incorporating the network’s social media button can greatly enhance your presense among professionals.

• Three main display options:

Publishers can choose between three share buttons: vertical with a share counter, a smaller, horizontal button with the counter, or a horizontal button with no counter.

How To: Set Up the Buttons

Liking Facebook

Enter in the URL of the client’s Facebook page when configuring the widget.

Follow Twitter

Use the follow button (see below) rather than the share. Find the follow button here.

Going with Google

Use the Google+ Badge Configuration tool to generate code.

Share LinkedIn 

Use client’s main URL to share LinkedIn button.

The recent launch of Google+ brand pages was met with a collective, overwhelming “meh” from online marketers. Many pointed to the fact that the pages offer little in the way of new or innovative features and are not very different from Facebook’s brand pages. While aesthetically this complaint may have some validity, there are a few unique features that brands and marketers can (and should) take advantage of.

Key Features:

Google Direct Connect – A new way to search:
Type +Pepsi into a Google search bar and you will be taken directly to Pepsi’s shiny new Google+ brand page. Google has dubbed this feature “Direct Connect” and it creates a new way for users to quickly search for and connect with brands online.

As users become more aware of, and more adept at using Direct Connect it’s easy to see how maintaining a dynamic and engaging Google+ page for your brand could become necessary to connect with younger audiences.

Creative Profile Design:
Google+ brand pages allow brands to flex some creative muscle when it comes to page design. While there is currently no functionality for building out apps and welcome screens as with Facebook, brands on Google+ do have the option to create fun, eye-catching page layouts by selecting captivating images to display as “Scrapbook photos” (the five photos that are displayed at the top of the brand page).

Watch the cyclist flip across your screen on the Red Bull page.

To watch the snow fall, check out the Burberry page.

Tailored Messaging:
One of Google +’s most unique features is Circles. Users place people they follow in Circles that can be curated however that user chooses. For example, I might create a Circle for coworkers, a Circle for college friends, and a Circle for family. If I have a good marketing tip, I’ll share that with my coworkers Circle. If I have a funny family photo to post, I can choose to share it only with my family Circle.

With the launch of Google+ brand pages, brands can choose which users they share content with by segmenting followers into Circles. As an example Google imagines a brand that puts its followers in one of three Circles: Customers, Buyers, and Staff.

The ability to tailor messages to specific customer or user groups is a powerful tool for brand marketers looking to be even more relevant to brand followers.

Hangouts:
“Hangouts” is basically a video chat platform built in to Google+. From a customer service perspective, Hangouts represent a powerful opportunity to connect with customers or clients and resolve issues and questions face-to-face.

To encourage engagement, brands could consider hosting Hangouts in the form of Q+A sessions with designers, columnists, bloggers, or any key players at the brand.

Missing Features:
There are also a few notable missing features that marketers should be aware of.

Contests:
Marketers who have long used contests and promotions on Facebook to garner larger audiences and earn loyalty from fans were dismayed to hear that these will not be allowed on the Google+ platform.

The embargo on offering prize incentives to followers may force marketers to get a bit more creative with the content they publish on the Google+ brand pages they manage.

Custom URLs:
So far there’s no sign of a custom URL functionality, which has left some marketers miffed. It’s true that not offering custom URLs does seem like a strange oversight. However, it’s conceivable that Google Direct Connect will eliminate the necessity for custom URLs altogether. When a user can type “+brand name” into his or her Google search bar as opposed to typing www.plus.google.com/brandname into the address bar, the lack of custom URLs begins to feel much less like an oversight and much more like a strategic move.

Keep in mind that the Google+ brand pages launched less than a week ago, so changes and improvements are sure to follow in the coming months!

The world’s most visited homepage is also most likely one of the simplest. And it’s no coincidence that the guys responsible for revolutionizing the search engine also understand the importance of a sleek , clutter-free design.

In fact, in June, Google once again redesigned its homepage, simplifying an already minimalist Web page, and adding a sleek black bar across the top that brought social networking into the mix with the launch of Google+.

There are four implicit things Google (and the following four companies) understand about homepage design that everyone should take to heart. A great homepage has a clear call to action, concise messaging, an element of stickiness and integrated social media.

Clear calls to action

According to a report from research firm Econsultancy, companies whose conversion rates have improved over the past year are using on average 26 percent more methods to improve conversion and 50 percent more ways to segment their visitors and customers than those companies whose conversion rates have not improved.

In other words, as the world of digital becomes more competitive, and marketers get better at conversion rate optimization, it is becoming harder to improve on these conversion rates.

So it’s even more surprising that a consistent mistake of businesses online is not providing visitors clear calls to action in order to take the next step in the conversion process. Our designers obviously got the message. there are several obvious steps that can be taken including: request a quote, view our work and a phone number.

Improving Your Message

It seems our fractured, hyperactive attention spans demand more from less these days and clear and simple messaging is a great way to deliver on both ends. According to several studies, the average attention span for a visitor online is about 8 to 10 seconds. So it is important to deliver  your central message on the homepage quickly and then create paths to the internal landing pages that best serve the needs and interest of the visitors.

If you’re expecting to turn these visitors into customers you MUST deliver your central messages clearly, quickly and convincingly. (See above)

How to be like Zappos.

• Keep your message simple.
• Keep paragraphs short on a homepage.
• Use sparse copy and large fonts.

One key point that Zappos clearly understands is the use of large fonts and sparse copy with clear paths to the appropriate internal pages (“Huge selection”, “Gloves”, “Jackets and Coats”)

Integrate social media into content

Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of adult Internet users in the United States now use a social networking sites like, Facebook, LinkedIn or Foursquare, according to the The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

So why would anyone neglect integrating social media into their homepage? Surprisingly many businesses don’t to use social media effectively on a company website.

Zipcar understands all these lessons and integrates their social media button right in the middle of the pathway leading to an internal landing page.

Stickiness

According to the International Telecommunications Union, 79 percent of Americans, or 243 million, surf the Internet. That’s a whole lot of attention you’re fighting for and its going to take hard work and a certain level of creativity to get them to visit just once. So after you’ve put in all that hard work to get them there Once you must provide good reasons for  them to come back because studies show  visitors  rarely convert the first time.

Have a visit to barHappy’s website any time and you’ll find a ton of great content including practical articles providing information of real use to your visitors such as where to find the best 70′s music or the most extensive Belgium beer menu.

Other keys to barHappy’s stickiness:

• Regularly updated content.
• Incorporating videos.
• Leverage user-generated content.
• Provides sign up to newsletter and RSS feeds.