Analyze Twitter Data for Any Search Term [Free Tool]

Over the past few weeks, I've been working -- mostly in secret -- on a sweet new free tool. Well, I'm finally ready to release it this week. It's called TweetCharts, and it's designed to be a simple way for you to quickly and easily obtain Twitter data on any hashtag, username, word, phrase, or URL. No longer do you have to wait for some social media scientist to run a report for you; now you can do it yourself!

To give you a sampling of the different use-cases and information you can pull out of this flexible tool, I ran a few interesting reports and highlighted what I thought was the most useful information from each. Here are a few things I learned...

Understand What Tweet Sources Are Telling You

When we look at the TweetCharts report for a given search term -- let's say, "analytics" -- we find that many of the most popular applications used to post tweets containing the word "analytics" are automated or third-party posting systems including Twitterfeed and Buffer. This indicates that most of the tweets mentioning "analytics" are those created by automated broadcasting and scheduling tools, likely by marketers. Using this data, if you were trying to engage in a real conversation about analytics on Twitter, for instance, you'd probably want to target long-tail keywords such as "measuring marketing" or "marketing metrics," which are more likely to be used in human, not automated conversations.


But when we compare that to the report run for "LadyGaga," we see a very different set of third-party applications used to tweet. Mobile applications and the Twitter.com web interface dominate, indicating that this audience is a very "normal" bunch and are manually tweeting, rather than scheduling or automating content. Most of these Twitter users are probably not marketers, so heavy-handed social media marketing tactics would probably appear alien here.

Determine Which Hashtags Your Audience is Using

Looking at the top hashtags section of the TweetCharts report for a search on "JustinBieber" shows us the conversational threads that are happening amongst Bieber fans. If I were a marketer looking to get in front of that kind of audience, these hashtags would make a great starting point. Sharing interesting content in tweets related to and tagged with these hashtags would likely appear in the search streams of hardcore Bieber fans.


Turning to the hashtag section of the report for the search query "SEO," we find that many include the hashtag "jobs." This tells us that many of the people using the keyword "SEO" on Twitter are either looking to be hired or are hiring. Those trying to recruit or find employment in the SEO space would do well to target this keyword.

 Find Industry Influencers

When we analyze the report run for the "#B2BChat" (a popular Twitter chat), we can use the most mentioned users section to quickly identify users who are most influential in that community. If you're interested in engaging that audience, these are likely the great users to reach out to, as they tend to dominate the discussion.



On the other hand, looking at the TweetCharts report for "Las Vegas" reveals that the vast majority of users tweeting about Sin City only tweet about it once. This means that there are no easily identifiable common influential users for that topic. One might conclude that most are tourists who are not following the same group of people. Therefore, influencer marketing tactics are unlikely to reach the transient Las Vegas audience on Twitter.

Identify Opportunities for Engagement

Another possible solution presents itself when we run the report for a search on "vacation." Here we find that more than 12% of the tweets mentioning the word "vacation" are in fact questions. If you're trying to reach an audience interested in travel, a useful Twitter tactic would be to search for questions about travel, vacations, and specific destinations and answering them (either with tweets or through content like blog posts and videos).






There are only a few examples of some of the things you can learn from TweetCharts reports. I encourage you to run a few reports of your own using the search terms that concern your business or industry. Be sure to let us know what types of data you uncover and what other use-cases you come up with. How else can marketers use this tool?



















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A Marketer's Guide to Optimizing Images for Google Search

There's no doubt about it: the visual content revolution is upon us, as is evident by the infographic craze, the popularity of websites like Pinterest, and the success of visual content on social media sites like Facebook and Google+.

It's no surprise then that today on the Official Google Webmaster blog, Google shared some helpful tips on how to effectively optimize your website's visual content and images to get found in Google's Image Search. We thought these tips, in addition to the Image Publishing Guidelines Google encourages, were definitely worthy of sharing with you, especially if you're experimenting with ways to make your marketing content more visual so you can take advantage of the increased popularity of visual content.

Do you know how to properly optimize that fabulous pink paper unicorn image seen at top right? You will after you read this simple tutorial!

How Google Identifies and Indexes Images

So what exactly does Google look at when indexing images? Let's check out a quick overview before we explain how to optimize your images.

First, it checks out image type. The image types Google can index include BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG. To learn more about a particular image when Google's algorithms index an image, Google looks at the written copy on the page where the image was found as well as the page's title and body. Google also considers anchor text pointing to the image, the image’s filename, and its alt text. In addition, Google may use other methods like computer vision (methods for acquiring, processing, analyzing, and understanding images) and the caption from the Image Sitemap (a Sitemap incorporating image-specific tags, which we'll elaborate on later in this post), if available, to learn more about the images it finds.

How to Optimize Images So Google Can Index Them in Search

In order to make it easier for Google to find and index your images, Google suggests the following:

1) Only Use Google-Supported Image Formats on Your Site

As we already mentioned, the image types Google can index include BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG, so be sure to only use these image file types on your website to make it possible for Google to index them.

2) Name the Filenames of Your Images Using Descriptive Words Related to the Content of the Image

In other words, name your image files something that is indicative of what the image is itself, rather than something like IMG2394870.jpg. For instance, if you're a paper vendor, and you uploaded that image at the top of this post of a pink paper unicorn made using your paper, you might name it pink-paper-unicorn.jpg. Descriptive filenames are also helpful for users who come across your images in search, since Google admits to using filenames as the image's snippet in search results when it can't locate any relevant text on the page that references the image.

3) Use Image Alt Text to Describe Images

Because Google and other search engines have a difficult time "seeing" images, use the alt text to describe it in a way that humans would read and understand, similar to how you'd choose a filename. In the alt text for that same pink paper unicorn image, for example, you might describe it as pink paper unicorn.

The alt text of an image is very important for a couple of reasons. First, because it lets Google know what the subject matter of the image is. Google then uses this information to determine the best images to return for a searcher's query. Second, because it provides users who are unable to see images on web pages -- whether they have visual impairments or are using devices with low-bandwidth connections -- to be able to interpret images. For these reasons, Google recommends you be as descriptive as possible, citing the following examples of bad, better, and best alt text for an image:

Bad: alt=""
Better: alt="puppy"
Best: alt="Dalmatian puppy playing fetch"

Avoid: alt="puppy dog baby dog pup pups puppies doggies pups litter puppies dog retriever labrador wolfhound setter pointer puppy jack russell terrier puppies dog food cheap dog food puppy food"

As you can see, Google also advises against using an alt text naming approach similar to 'keyword stuffing.'

4) Provide Context for the Image in the Page's Surrounding Text

It helps Google if the text on the page where the image is located mentions the image, too, so always try to reference your images in your text, close to where it lives on the page, using keywords similar to the alt text/filename of the image. Continuing with our pink paper unicorn example, let's say you had inserted that image into a blog post about creative uses of your paper. To ensure that Google better understood what that image was about, you'd reference it in the text of your blog post near where the image was placed (notice how we also did this at the top of this very post?). For example, you might write:

"To the right, check out the exquisite example of the pink paper unicorn one of our customers made using our handmade paper product."

Google also recommends providing descriptive titles and captions for your images, so consider adding those when relevant.

5) Submit an Image Sitemap

Google encourages website owners to submit what's called an Image Sitemap, which helps the Google team learn about your website's new images as well as determine what those images are about. You may already be familiar with Sitemaps in general, which offer a way to tell Google about the pages on your website it might not otherwise discover. In the simplest sense, a Sitemap is a list of the pages on your website.

Similarly, you can also use Google's image extensions for Sitemaps to give Google additional information about the images on your website. This helps Google discover images it might not have otherwise discovered. In addition, it enables you to identify the most important images on your own website. To create an Image Sitemap, you'll have to add image-specific tags to a Sitemap, or just update an existing Sitemap.

To learn more about how to create and submit an Image Sitemap to Google, visit this page.
http://ow.ly/ayYCj  

6) File Size? Forgettaboutit!

Don't worry about the size of the images you embed on your website, at least when it comes to their ability to get indexed in Google search. Google clarifies that it doesn't discriminate, and will index images of all sizes -- no restrictions.

7) Avoid Embedding Text Within Images

While image size may not be a factor, Google does offer a word of warning against including important text in images -- particularly for elements like page headings and menu items -- with the reason being that not all users can access these images, and they'd be missing out on important information. Always save important text-based messages for the regular text-based HTML. Think of it this way: if a user would be confused or missing out on important information if the image wasn't viewable, you should save the text in the image for regular text-based HTML.

8) Use Descriptive Anchor Text When Linking to Images

Although you essentially have no control over the anchor text external pages use when linking to your images, you do have control over the anchor text you use in the links on your own site. Make sure this anchor text is useful, relevant, and descriptive of your images to clearly indicate to users the destination of your links. This will also make for a better user experience. For example, if you were linking to an album of origami paper animal creations made using your handmade paper, you might make the anchor text, Origami Animals Made With Handmade Paper.

9) Protect Your Images

Images on the web are easily sharable, and what this often results in is multiple copies of the image floating around the web, many of which are lacking appropriate attribution. Just think about some of the controversy surrounding Pinterest and users' improper use and attribution of images, for example.

In fact, what happens a lot is the original source getting buried in the rankings by copies if the copies version is better optimized using the tips above. So "if the original source is a page from an image gallery that has very little text," remarks Google, "it can happen that a page with more textual context is chosen to be shown in search." While Google tries to use as many signals as it can find to identify the original source of the image, they encourage users to provide as much attribution information as possible when using sourced images.

If you're concerned about others abusing, misusing, or not crediting the original images you embed on your website, make your images available under an attribution license that require users to attribute you as the source and link back to your website. You can use such licensing services as Creative Commons to easily implement this.

10) Consider User Experience

As is evident by the huge popularity of visual websites like Pinterest, using images and visuals is a great way to boost site traffic. But Google also encourages users not to overlook the user experience of those site visitors. Thus, Google recommends the following best practices for creating a positive user experience through use of images:

1. Use High-Quality Images: Not only are they more professional-looking and sharper-looking in the thumbnail versions displayed in Google Image Search, but they are also more effective at attracting inbound links and generating traffic when shared on third-party websites like Pinterest.
2. Create Standalone Pages for Important Images: You may use images on various pages of your site, but if you want a certain image to rank well in search, consider creating a dedicated page for that image where you can aggregate all its related information in one place. We recommend doing this for original images such as infographics, visualizations, and other original images your business creates.
3. Place Images Above the Fold: In other words, don't make visitors scroll down on the page to view your image. This will help you to immediately capture the attention of your visitors.
4. Create Directories to Curate Similar Images: This is particularly important if you have a visual business such as a photographer or an artist. Make it easy for your users to browse through relative images.
5. Optimize Images to Load Quickly: This will prevent the text on your page from loading before the images do. Check out Google's Optimizing Web Graphics guide for more info.

Are you taking measures to ensure that your visual content is easily findable in search?





















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How to Optimize Your Business For Local Search and Social Marketing

If you have a local business or one that targets audiences in a specific geolocation, then you will want to move beyond general guides for search and social optimization. This post will take you through several marketing strategies for local search and social media marketing.

Keyword Research for Local Search

Before you can optimize your website, social media profiles, or anchor text for link building, you have to know what keywords you want to use. When it comes to local search marketing, you are not only targeting industry-specific terms, but geo-specific terms as well.
Let’s look at an example of a local plumbing business that might have several locations in Washington. When planning their optimization strategy, the first thing they might do is take a look at some geo-specific keywords + plumbing to see how many times they are searched using Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

While the numbers may not be exact, you can rest assured that, in looking at the above data, seattle plumbing is searched more than tacoma plumbing, but tacoma plumbing is searched more than everett and edmonds plumbing combined. When you start with terms like that, you will also get additional suggestions plus the approximate number of times those phrases are searched monthly.

Want to try some other ways to get keyword ideas? Try typing in your keyword ideas in Google search, then scroll down to the bottom to see the related searches.

You can also take your most popular competitor’s website (the one that ranks highest for your main targeted keyword phrase) and look at the keywords they rank for using SEMrush. A free account will show you 10 keywords they rank well for.

Using a combination of these tools and researching other local competitors in your industry should help you develop the right keywords to use for the local search optimization of your business.

On-Site Optimization for Local Search

Once you have your keywords set, the next thing you will want to do is optimize your own website for local search. Let search engines know what locations you are targeting by including geo-specific information, keywords, and phrases in the following places on your website.

Title and Meta Descriptions

When it comes to search results, people are going to see your website’s SEO title tag and meta description or other related snippet from your website first.

Note that, when searching for air conditioning repair seattle, those keywords are bolded in both the title and snippet about the website. Make these two areas count for local search by doing the following.

• Locally Optimized Title Tags – The SEO title tag is still one of the most important elements for on-site optimization, even if Google sometimes chooses alternate titles for search results. Regardless, you should still assume that Google might choose your specified title tag to link to your website in search results. Hence, you will want to make sure it not only includes your primary keywords, but your location as well within 70 characters.
• Locally Optimized Meta Descriptions – Again, Google might choose a snippet of text from your website instead, but it never hurts to have an optimized meta description. Make sure it includes your primary keywords, areas your business serves, and phone number if possible within 165 characters.

Local Address & Phone Number on All Pages

Another good signal to search engines is a local street address and phone number on all pages. Most businesses will place this information in their website’s footer. Be sure that it is actually in the text and not in an image. This is good for search engine bots and for people on their mobile phones as your phone number will be clickable!

Location-Specific Pages

Have more than one location but only one website? That’s not a problem. Just create a page on your website specific for each physical location. This way, anyone searching for your business in a particular region, city, state, or country should be directed to the appropriate page.

Embed a Map

If you enter an address on Google Maps, you can get HTML embed code to add the map to your website. Just click on the link icon to get the code.

You can also click on the customize link to choose sizing and other features for your map before embedding it on your website.

This is a great way to help visitors to your website find your location easily and who knows – it might tell a Google search bot more about your location.

Create a Geo Sitemap

Want to make absolutely sure Google knows where you are? Then create a geo sitemap and KML file for your website. Geo Sitemap Generator makes it easy. Just fill in your company details, download the files, and upload them to your website’s root folder.

Then go to Google Webmaster Tools, add your website (if you haven’t already), verify it using your Google Analytics code (other options available), and then add your geo sitemap’s URL under Site Configuration > Sitemaps. Instead of waiting for Google to find out where you are, this will tell them where you are!
Local Search Directories
Once you have optimized your site for local search, you should begin to start some off-site optimization. The first places to begin are applicable local search directories.

The above graphic shows the current landscape of local search directories and how they feed into each other.
The following are seven of the top local search directories.

Google Places

The ultimate goal is to have the best Google Places listing. For local businesses, it could mean having your business show up on the first page above some of the organic search results.

To get started, add or claim your business on Google Places. When you create your profile, be sure fill out as much information as possible and add up to 10 supplementary photos. You can even link five videos from YouTube about your business.
Also note that you can hide your address on your listing by selecting that your business serves customers at their location. When you select that option, you will get a checkbox to not show your address.

This is a great option for home businesses that target local clients. Once you have completed your profile and hit submit, you will need to choose a way to verify your business. Some will have the option to verify by phone immediately – others will have to wait two to three weeks for a postcard by mail to the business address.
Once your Google Places profile is live, be sure to encourage your customers to review your business. Be sure to also monitor your business reviews. You can respond good or bad reviews as the owner – this is a great way to demonstrate your customer service skills publicly!

You can even use your responses as a way to advertise your friendliness to potential customers as the above business has done. And don’t worry if customers review you on other sites as many of them feed into Google Places.

The only unfortunately part is off-site reviews won’t count towards the number of reviews and stars shown in Google search results.
While Google Places one of the most important places to get listed on, you have to also build profiles on other sites to build citations for local SEO. The more consistent listings you have on additional local search directories, the better your local rankings will be.

Yahoo Local

Yahoo Local should be next on your local search listings and citations quest. You can add or claim a basic listing for free which includes the vital information (contact information, link to your website, hours, payment options, email address, products, and services) or you can choose the enhanced listing for $9.95 per month which allows you to add photos, coupons, a 3,000 character company descriptions, and a 150 character company tagline. You can also run a report to see the number of impressions and clicks you have received with an enhanced listing. The nice part about Yahoo Local compared to Google Places is that verification is done on Yahoo’s end and takes a couple of days to go live.

Bing Local

Bing Local allows you to add or claim a free listing with up to nine photos for your business. Their submission system (the Bing Business Portal) is currently in beta and not the most user-friendly compared to Google or Yahoo. Verification is done by mail and can take two to three weeks. One nice thing about their local pages is that they pull in reviews from a variety of other local search sites and, unlike Google, the total number of ratings and stars from all sites are listed in Bing’s local search results.

Yelp

Yelp is one of the most well-known local search directories. You can add or claim your business listing for free and add photos and lots of additional details beyond just your contact information. Business owners can respond to reviews on their page, which is a plus for demonstrating customer service skills. Yelp also offers pay per click advertising within their network so you can get your business listing in front of more people.

Merchant Circle

Merchant Circle is another popular local directory that allows businesses to add or claim free listings with an extended description, profile picture, and link to your website. They also offer free basic statistics about your listing including keywords driving traffic to your listing and the amount of visitors your listing has received in the last thirty days compared to average businesses and the top business on Merchant Circle in your category. You can click on the who is this link to find out who the leader in your category is to learn more about your competitor’s local marketing strategy.

Superpages

Superpages allows businesses to add or claim free listings that include an extended description of their business, multiple categories, a listing of products and services, one related business image, and a link to their website. You can add or claim your business listing here.

Yellow Pages

Yellow Pages allows businesses to add or claim free listings that include an extended description of their business, multiple categories, and a link. You can also add additional photos for the business listing.

Additional Local Directories

Looking for more? You can use tools like Whitespark Local Citation Finder which will help you find the best local directories for your business. You can also search for the names of your main competitors to see what sites they are listed on and make sure you get listed there as well.

Why It Is Important to Claim Your Listings

If a business has been around long enough, there is a good chance that the business is already listed with their address and phone number. With that in mind, is it important to claim your business listing? Absolutely! Many local directories do not have any verification method to prove that someone editing a listing actually belongs to the business.
If you take the initiative to claim your listings on major local directories and networks, it prevents other people from modifying (or even completely removing) your listing.

Getting Local Reviews

Once you’ve claimed your business profiles on local search directories, the most important thing you can do to boost your visibility is get reviews. Having a positive rating can help your elevate your business in search results, especially on sites that allow visitors to sort businesses by the number of positive ratings.
Here are some tips to getting great social local search reviews.

• Add Buttons / Badges to Your Website – Let your website visitors know they can rate your business on directories like Yelp by adding links to your business listing on your website. 
• Encourage Reviews in Your Store – If you have a store or restaurant, encourage local reviews by simply putting a mention or link to your Yelp or other business listing on receipts. 
•  Encourage Reviews via Emails – Does your business have an online ordering system? Do you encourage people who buy from your website to sign up for your mailing list? If so, email people after they should have received their purchase and ask them to rate their experience with your business on the business listing of your choice. 
• Simply Ask – If you interact with people on a daily basis in your business, simply ask people to add a review on your business listing. Most people will be happy to oblige.

No matter how great your business is, you still might encounter the bad review. As I mentioned previously, many sites like Google Places and Yelp allow business owners to respond to their reviews individually. Be sure to regularly monitor your reviews and respond to them as necessary. Leaving bad reviews unanswered does not make the go away… it just makes visitors to your profile wonder what, if any, resolution your unsatisfied customers received.
By responding to your bad reviews, you show potential new customers that your goal is to make sure everyone is happy no matter what.

Link Building for Local Keywords

Once you’ve built your local business listings up, the next thing you should start doing is building links to your website. Keep in mind that you don’t want to over do things as Google is hard at work on an over optimization penalty as we speak. That said, there are many great ways to acquire links.
Since I’ve already discussed 10 hard-hitting link building tactics and leveraging link blending to maximize rankings, I won’t go into any more general link building strategies here. Instead, lets look at some local linking options including the following.

• Related Local Businesses – Look for businesses that are in the same industry, but are not competitors. See if those websites have resource pages that link out to other businesses similar to yours. Then see if you can strike up a dialog with the business owner and convince them why they need to have your link listed as a valuable resource their visitors.
• Local Bloggers – Find bloggers that are in your region whose audience might be interested in your business. See if you can arrange to do a guest post for them, or get them to sample your products or services in exchange for a review on their blog.
• General Local Resource Pages – Search for local business resources that may not have come up in your local directories search and find out if you can get your site listed.
• Competitor Backlinks – Using tools like Open Site Explorer, find out what backlinks your local competitors’ websites have to see if you can get yourself listed on them as well.
• Local Events – Be on the lookout for events in your area, such as industry conferences, expos, or shows. Check the event’s website to see if they link to their exhibitors and sponsors. If they do, invest as an exhibitor or sponsor of the event so you can get your link on their site as well.
• Local Charities – Give back to your community by sponsoring and donating to local charities. Many will have websites that thank their local sponsors and donors, linking back to the sponsor’s and donor’s websites.

Now that we’ve covered most of the local search marketing bases, let’s take a look at some local social marketing strategies.

Local Marketing on Facebook

With 845 million monthly active users, you’re bound to find some of your target audience on Facebook. Here are some ways to make sure your business gets found by Facebook users in your area.

Optimizing Your Facebook Page for Local

The best way to optimize your Facebook page for a local audience is to make sure it is set up as a Local Business. If you haven’t created your Facebook page, make sure to create your page as a Local Business.

If you have already created it, you may be able to change the category, depending on your number of fans. To check to see what category your page is listed as, go to Admin Panel > Manage > Edit Page and then Basic Information. Here you will see a category and sub-category for your business.

Once your Facebook page is set up as a local business, be sure to enter all of your local details including your street address, local phone number, and business hours. If you don’t want to list your exact street address, you can just enter the city, state, and zip code to give users an approximation of your location.
One thing to mention in regards to the new Facebook pages design is the About information for your business. It will generally show your business category, location, phone number, and business hours.

You can make the area show your website by removing your phone number and business hours from your page’s details. You just have to decide which is more important for your visitors – seeing your phone number on your Facebook page or having the ability to click through to your website. If you do want your local business information to stay intact, you can also add a status update with a link to your Facebook page, then pin the status update to the top of the page so it shows in the top left column.

Connecting with a Local Audience on Facebook

Once your Facebook page is locally optimized, you will want to get your page in front of a local audience. Some simple ways to do this are as follows.

• Invite Your Friends – Go to the Admin Panel > Build Audience area and use the Invite Email Contacts option to invite your email contacts to become a fan of your business page. Then use the Invite Friends option to invite friends on your personal profile to become a fan as well. Be sure to invite contacts in your region to get the most targeted audience for your page. 
• Become a Fan of Local Businesses Pages – Again, you will want to avoid competitors, but become a fan of related local business pages by using Facebook as your page and liking the page. Once you become a fan, you will be able to interact on the local business page as your page in comments on the page’s updates. This will get you exposure with your target audience and will hopefully lead to new local fans of your page. 
• Target Status Updates by Location – Send status updates only to people in specific locations by changing the dropdown for your status update from Public to targeted by Location / Language. There, you can specify an audience within a particular country, state, and/or city. 
• Use Facebook Ads – Facebook Ads are a relatively inexpensive way to target Facebook members in your region. Select your Facebook page as the Destination for your ad, and then use the local targeting option to show the ad to only people in a specified country, state, province, city, or zip code. 

Local Marketing on Twitter

While Twitter may not have as large of an audience, it does have 100 million active users. It is also much easier to gain followers since you can interact with people without them even following you. Here are some ways to make sure your business gets found by Twitter users in your area.

Optimizing Your Twitter Profile for Local

With Twitter profiles, you don’t have to worry about properly categorizing them from the start to make them local friendly. All you have to do is a few minor edits to your Twitter profile. Be sure that you include a specific location in your Twitter information as well as a local keyword phrase in your Twitter bio.

This will help anyone searching specifically for local businesses on Twitter to find yours easily.

Connecting with a Local Audience on Twitter

As previously mentioned, remember that on Twitter, you can interact with anyone regardless of whether they are following you by simply mentioning their @username in a status update. Here’s how you can grow a local audience on Twitter.

• Connect with Local Twitter Users – There are several ways to find local people on Twitter, thanks to Twitter lists and directories. You can start with TwitterCounter, Twitter Grader, and Wefollow to find the top users in your area. Or you can use Twitter directories like Twellow and Follower Wonk to search for users in specific locations by keyword. 
• Check Out Followers for Local Businesses – Look for local businesses on Twitter in your industry (including competitors), and take a peek at their followers. Chances are, they might be interested in your business as well. 
• Follow Local Discussions – Use Twitter Advanced Search to monitor conversations based on specified keywords from users near a particular place which can be specified by name or zip code. 
• Try Twitter Maps App on Bing – Bing offers several apps to enhance the functionality of their maps including a Twitter app. To access this app, go to explore map apps and select Twitter Maps. Zoom into your location on the map and see tweets that are were sent in your region.

Once you find some people that fit your targeted, local demographic, be sure to follow them on Twitter. Don’t just click the follow button though, be sure to actually follow their updates and interact with them. The second part is key if you expect to get any local followers to your Twitter profile in return.

Local Marketing on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the top social network for professionals, therefore it’s the perfect network for business professionals. Here’s how you can grow a local audience on LinkedIn.
Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile for Local
To ensure that your profile comes up for anyone searching for professionals in your area, just make sure you have entered your correct location in your profile’s basic information settings. Then, for keyword optimization, include your location in your profile’s headline. Also be sure to list locations in your current and past job experiences.
Connecting with a Local Audience on LinkedIn
LinkedIn only wants you to connect with people in real life as opposed to networks like Twitter where you are encouraged to follow anyone you are simply interested in. To get more local connections on LinkedIn, be sure to do the following.

• Invite Email Connections – The best way to start building your LinkedIn connections is by importing your email connections into LinkedIn. LinkedIn will then allow you to invite anyone who is on LinkedIn to your network. 
• Connect with Colleagues & Alumni – After you have connected with everyone in your address book, you can then connect with current and past colleagues at your jobs as well as alumni from the college you attended. 
• Open Networkers Groups – LinkedIn Open Networkers (LIONs) are people who want to connect openly with as many people as possible on LinkedIn. Search for open networkers in LinkedIn groups, join a few LION groups, and then start perusing the member’s list. You will be able to use the group as how you know the person on the LinkedIn connect form. Then just include a private message explaining why you want to connect with them, such as you are trying to make more local connections on LinkedIn. 
• Local Networking Groups – When searching groups, be sure to also search for local networking groups. After you have spent some time engaging in the local groups, you can start to connect with other members you have interacted with. 
• Email Your Local Contacts – Remember that LinkedIn contacts are not meant to be spammed. That said, you can go to your connections and filter them by location. Then you can select one or more people in a specific location at a time to email. You should probably email everyone individually and personalized if possible, but if not, this could be a good way to get an important message to lots of local contacts simultaneously.

Local Marketing on Google+

Although Google+ doesn’t have nearly the amount of users as Facebook or Twitter, they do corner the market in influencing search results. There are lots of reasons you should use Google+ such as the fact that businesses that might not normally show up on the first page of results will thanks to having the right Google+ connections.

Google has even incorporated Google+ people and pages above Google AdWords ads for some searches.

If you want to reap the search and social benefits of Google+, here is what you need to do.

Optimizing Your Google+ Profile for Local

If you want your Google+ profile to appear in search recommendations for local searches, be sure to include your current location in your Google+ profile in your Places Lived section. Also be sure to add locally optimized keyword phrases in your profile’s headline, introduction, and occupation.

This should help people find you both on Google’s main search and Google+’s internal search.

Optimizing Your Google+ Page for Local

For Google+ pages, be sure to set up your page as a local business from the start. You can even use your Google Places information to populate your page’s data.

This is especially important now that Google mixes people and pages in their main search results and within Google+’s internal search.

Connecting with a Local Audience on Google+

Google+ is similar to Twitter in the fact that you can follow anyone you choose, assuming that they share public updates. If they do share public updates and have it set that anyone can comment on them, you can comment on them without having to wait for them to follow you!
Here’s how you can grow a local audience on Google+.

• Make Sure Your Google+ Profile is Publicly Visible – Click on your profile’s Edit Profile button and check to make sure that each section of your Google+ profile is publicly visible. If your profile is not set to public, it will not show up in search results. 
• Add Local Google+ Users to Circles – Use the Google+ internal search to find local Google+ users that might be interested in your business and connect with them by adding them to circles using your personal profile. Be sure to create a separate circle for local users so you can target status updates directly to them. 
• Interact with Local Connections – Interact with your local connections regularly. For those that share their public updates and allow everyone to comment upon them, this is a great way to gain additional exposure with a local audience. 
• Suggest Your Google+ Business Page to Local Followers – Once you’ve built up a good local following, you can suggest your Google+ business page to them through a status update targeted to your local connections’ circle. 
• Follow Your Local Connections Back on Your Business Page – Show your local connections that you value them on Google+ by following them back as your page. One of the perks to Google+ pages over Facebook pages is that you interact with personal Google+ profiles as your business page once people are following your page. Be sure to use this to gain even more exposure for your business to a local audience.

Local Marketing on Foursquare

Last but not least on the social circuit is Foursquare, the ultimate social network for local businesses. If you have a location that you want to share with the public, you will definitely want to add or claim your business on Foursquare.
Optimizing Your Foursquare Profile for Local
Foursquare business pages are as locally optimized as they get, so nothing to worry about there. Just be sure to take advantage of adding extra details about your business, including your other social profile links and a link to your website.
Connecting with a Local Audience on Foursquare
The best thing you can do on Foursquare is encourage people to check-in to your business. One of the top ways of doing this is by offering incentives such as discounts or coupons for people who check-in often at your business. You can offer perks by creating specials for newbies, friends, swarms (when lots of people check in during the same time period), loyalty, and mayors (the person who checks-in the most at your location).
The reasons check-ins are so powerful is that most of the time, users will not only check-in on Foursquare but also share their check-in with their Twitter and/or Facebook audience. This is great word-of-mouth marketing as people are more likely to go places their friends have been or recommended.
Promote check-ins at your business location by putting a Foursquare window cling on your business’ window to remind people to check-in. Also be sure to advertise your Foursquare presence and specials on your website so people will know they are getting a great deal to check-in when they arrive.

More Local Social Media Optimization Tips

The following are general tips that fit almost any network in terms of making sure your social media presence is locally optimized and you are ready to build an even larger local audience.

• Include Social Links in Your Emails – Anytime you send out emails, whether they are to your general mailing list or just regular emails to contacts, be sure that your email signature includes a link to your top social profiles. 
• Include Social Buttons on Your Website – Add social media buttons or badges to your website so that visitors will be able to connect to your business easily. You can add them in the header, sidebar, or footer of your website. 
• Add Social Mentions to Printed Materials and Advertisements – Do you have a brochure in your store, business cards, or advertisements in local magazines or newspapers? Be sure to add a simple “Follow us on Twitter” or “Find us on Facebook” to these items (and direct links if possible).
• Stay Active – Staying active on your social networks will help greatly in encouraging engagement with your current audience. 
• Encourage Sharing – If you create content on your website in the form of articles, newsletters, or blog posts, be sure to encourage that your audience shares them socially. This should help lead new traffic to your website and connections to your social profiles. 

Looking at Local Analytics

To make sure that your local marketing strategies are getting local results, be sure to check out the following analytics.
Google Analytics
When reviewing traffic to your website, you will want to look in your Google Analytics’ Audience Demographics data.

Here, you will be able to see if local visitors stay on your site longer than other visitors by analyzing time on site, bounce rate, and pages per visit. If you have set up goals on your website, such as when a person makes a purchase or signs up for your mailing list, you can see if people in particular regions are completing these goals more often than others. You might find additional regions that you will want to target your local marketing efforts towards through use of your analytics.
Facebook Insights
Want to see if you are getting likes from the right audience? Check out your Facebook page’s Insights to see demographics information for your page’s likes, reach, and people talking about your page content.

If you notice that you are getting more likes outside of your targeted location, you will need to figure out better ways to encourage audience growth in your desired region such as creating more location-specific content or specials on your Facebook page.

Conclusion

If you follow the steps I mentioned above, you should start seeing an increase in foot traffic to your business. But the thing to keep in mind when doing local search and social optimization is that it takes time to see the results. Don’t expect for miracles in the first 30 or even 60 days. It will take months, if not a year before it really kicks in.

What other local search and social optimization tactics do you use?













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Facebook Is Building a Search Engine [REPORT]

March 30, 2012 by Sam Laird 32 Pin ItShare on TumblremailsharePin ItShare on Tumblremailshare

Is Facebook building a Google rival — one that would use your location and your friends’ tastes?
A team of more than 20 Facebook engineers — led by a former Google programmer — is at work on a vastly improved search engine within the site, according a Businessweek report.

The idea, according to two sources, is to take better advantage of the heaps of content Facebook users create on — and off — the site every day. With people sharing status updates and supporting brand pages on the network, as well as using Facebook’s “Like” button to mark articles and videos from external sites, there is certainly a lot to take advantage of.

Mashable contacted Facebook for more information and got this response from a company spokesperson: “We don’t comment on rumors and speculation around products.”

Google has boosted its presence in the social space recently, opening the Google

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Google Whips Up 3D Graphing Goodness in Search

March 30, 2012 by Lance Ulanoff 7 Pin ItShare on TumblremailsharePin ItShare on Tumblremailshare

Add one more thing to the list of fun stuff you can do directly from Google‘s search box: 3D Graph Plotting. And these aren’t just still 3D charts. They’re colorful and fully manipulable, all thanks to Google Chrome Browser’s support for WebGL.

According to a post in Google’s Inside Search blog, the new features are an enhancement to the 2D graphing functionality Google launched late last year. Google announced the new update by providing a sample equation that, if you have the Chrome browser, you can drop right into the address bar:

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Forget Google Instant: In the Future, Search Engines Will Read Your Habits

When Google launched Google Instant in 2010, it claimed that providing results as users type and removing the need to hit the “enter” key saved users two to five seconds per search.

Wolfram Alpha CEO Stephen Wolfram’s vision of what the word “Instant” could mean for search is a bit more literal.

He envisions some type of search engine which could — through data maps of personal data history — provide reports automatically when they’re needed without an explicit query. He counts this sort of “preemptive delivery of information” among “a large number” of projects the data company has been working on.
Though there are no concrete plans to create such a product, here’s the type of thing Wolfram has in mind:
“You run into a person (e.g. at SXSW); your augmented reality system automatically recognizes their face, tells you your social network connections to them, plots the time series of when you’ve exchanged email with them, does topic modelling of recent material about them (or email you’ve exchanged with them) and compares it with things you’ve written recently and suggests interesting conversation topics.”

Earlier this month, Wolfram wrote a blog post about personal analytics that outlined some of the data he tracks in his own life. It includes the same sort of data that could be useful to this type of pre-emptive search.
He has, for instance, archived every email message that’s passed through his inbox since 1989. He also tracks his keystrokes, meetings, hours spent on the phone and daily steps taken. Most of the data is recorded automatically.


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