Twitter has become a powerhouse for engagement. The ability to leave quick comments, complaints and questions make it an effective means of interaction. Not to mention the unique algorithm and live search used by the site, which makes reputation management a breeze. Since so many Facebook profiles are private, Twitter gives a more open connection to customers and potential users.

So, how do you effectively manage business-customer relations using Twitter? Here are five tips that will let you make the most out of the tool.

1. Reputation Management

I already touched on this a little before, but reputation management should be a key focus of your social media use. By keeping an eye on certain hashtags and keywords, such as your business name, you can find out what people have been saying about your brand. By contacting those customers with a response, you will be both monitoring your reputation, and helping to enhance it by engaging those same customers. For example, let’s say a Twitter user complains about a shoddy experience, like a product breaking. You could contact them directly and apologize, offering to replace it for free.

On the other hand, you could also monitor competitors this way. When someone has a complaint about that company, you could extend a free product from your own business as compensation for their experience. This kind of gesture has a way of catching a ton of attention, and often goes viral. Here is a great instance where such an event actually led to a ton of media attention.

2. Visibility

Improve visibility by posting frequently on Twitter. However, you want to make sure that everything you post is high quality, and that most of it is entirely original. I usually recommend that businesses hire someone to handle all social media content instead of doing it themselves. By getting someone on board who really known the medium, you will be increasing your chances of retweets, follows and searches related to your brand. There are plenty of social media experts that will do wonders for your visibility this way. You should also make sure to do a certain number of retweets from content you find around Twitter. Don’t just select those coming from other businesses. Instead, find someone who is influential and has a large follow base. Retweeting individuals sends a better message. As for how many retweets you should do, my advice is one per every ten original posts.

3. Customer Service

Your biggest use for Twitter is going to be as a customer service platform. For some reason, businesses have put a lot of effort into having their customer service agents who cover email also covering Facebook accounts, but much fewer bother to have them keeping track of Twitter. This is a problem, because with Twitter you can actually search out mentions of your product. On Facebook, you are waiting for them to come to your page, and so can only engagement them once they have initiated conversation. You should make sure you have a team handling Twitter, and regularly looking for mentions of your brand, whatever the context.

4. Multi-Account Management

You will probably have more than one social media account for your needs. You can manage them all much more efficiently if you use a dashboard. This will let you add on several profiles, from Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, ect, and manage them from a single place. That includes watching analytics, tracking keywords, seeing the influence of yourself and customers, scheduling posts and much more. Hootsuite is a really good option for most. They have a free (basic) package, a pro (small business) for $9.99 per month, and an enterprise option that you can get a quote for. But there are dozens of other dashboards out there, as well.

5. Establish Brand Personality

Finally, we have personality. Your brand should never lay flat, it should have a personality all its own. How do you establish this? Through a clever marketing campaign, and with a little help from Twitter. You can use the social media tool to establish a ‘voice’ that speaks the overall tone of your brand. For example, Old Spice now has a reputation for being larger than life and humorous. They were able to carry this on on to their social media interactions.

Do you have a tip for our readers on engaging customers via Twitter? Let us know in the comments.

Michelle is the social media addict and blogger behind Tek Social, the user-generated reource for the real geeks!

This is particularly true of start-up businesses.  So how do you lead a customer to your site to learn more about you and what you have to offer?  This is where many turn to Google Adwords.

Where Adwords Management Fits In

The most common internet search engine utilised by the user is Google.  In fact, it is so well known that it has become part of our everyday language i.e. to go and “google” something if you want to know about any particular topic. Adwords, being Google’s main source of revenue, are the advertisements that appear on the right hand of the results and identify what the internet user is looking for depending on what keywords they use.

The astute business owner would be looking to have their own ads appear there and have more people click on their ad, leading to more traffic on their landing page. Adwords management is the process of carrying out the analysis, bidding on the appropriate keywords and maintaining your account to enhance the performance of those adverts.

How Important Is Adwords Management?

An effective strategy of utilising Adwords to lead the right consumer to your product offering is vital.  This is where a careful understanding of which keywords and phrasings suit your business is vital.

You also want the internet shopper to not only click on your ad but also to buy; thereby increasing both your revenue and your business awareness.  Generally you will only be charged if your ad is clicked on not simply for it to appear under Google search results, also known as the number of “impressions”.

Clever management of your advertising campaign or Adwords management will ensure that your ad appears in the right context and setting, is viewed by the right client, clicked on and then even better that the client spends a bit of time getting to know your company and products.  Last, but far from least, you want to be the company that the customer chooses to purchase from.

Studies have shown that most users will only look at the first page of Google results.  They know if they do not immediately see the results they know that they need to enter different words into Google.  What if the perfect results appear to the user the first time but your ad does not appear until the second page?  Well then clearly you are not well placed.  What if the actual wording of your ad is not relevant or interesting enough to attract the all-important click through?  The more you appreciate the importance of this subject, the more apparent it is to the business owner to make the most of their advertising dollar by carefully worded ads, placed in the most appropriate search result and desirable to the customer.

Here you will find a few guidelines to help you navigate the numerous factors needed to make a great eCommerce site/store, If you take a few of these tips on board then you will be heading in the right direction for designing a very good eCommerce site.

Make sure that you have a shopping cart widget on every page

Why would you need this? Because we have to assume that your viewers are looking through your website and buying because they are affected by your marketing or that they are buying on a whim. In that case, when they decide to hit the checkout, you need to give them a clear view. If they have to find their way back to the home page in order to find the checkout and cart section, then they have time to change their mind.

The simplest structures are the only ones that have lasted

The Amazons and eBay’s of this world are still around because their website structure is laughably simple. They may have hundreds of thousands of pages, but they are arranged like the bristled of a brush instead of like a spaghetti junction. You need to be sure that your eCommerce site is also very user friendly and laughably simple. The convoluted sites have never lasted, and even though simple does look a bit plain and ugly, it is easier to buy from.

Have landing pages that are not directly integrated into the website is key

This is a very clever trick so remember where you read it. You are going to have landing pages that people visit from your PPC adverts or from links on other sites. You can make your landing page your home page, but it leaves you very little room to experiment. Worse still you could make your landing page you product pages, which means you have to do a lot of linking to give all your product pages the same attention.

Instead you should create landing pages that link to your website, but that your website does not link back to. Basically the viewer can navigate onto your site from the landing page, but cannot navigate from your website to the landing page. This means you can create as many landing pages as you like without ever messing up your website structure. It also means you can change your landing pages as much as you like without making your website more confusing

Have a home page that is crammed full of live feeds

Instead of having a home page full of offers that you have to change every night, have panels that have live feeds from other areas. For example, as on delivery comes in you can update the feed right away and all of a sudden you have adverts running for your newest products. You can control the feeds however you wish. You will find that changing what is in the panels via live feeds is easier than trying to change each panel manually by uploading and changing things on your site.

Suggestions are what turn lookers into buyers

Just like the live feed panels in the tip above, you should have suggestion panels at the bottom of each page. They should point to products that are going to be of interest to the reader or user of the website. These suggestions may not seem like a big deal, but the amount of users that they turn into buyers is staggeringly high.

Do not use a search engine search bar, install your own

You can use a Google or Yahoo search bar to allow people to run searches on your site. Do not do this for two reasons. Firstly, your results need to feature images, there no way around that fact. Secondly, the search engine crawlers will only show you web pages that they have crawled, so your newest product pages will not appear.

The users needs to have access to all categories from every page except in checkout

This is because the user needs a good navigation system, and a good navigation system is one that does not pen a user into a corner. You need to let them see the different categories so that they may create a broader search for their product, or so that they may choose to look at completely different products if they wish. Do not allow people to see other categories at the checkout, because in the checkout you want them to buy and not keep looking.

It’s that old adage of the vicious circle: it can be hard for those with no experience to land a job in SEO and without landing a job they’ll never get the experience.

Personally, I love recruiting and working with people who are new to SEO. I’ve written just recently about what makes these people so great to work with. As you can imagine, though, we get a huge volume of enquiries for each of these roles that becomes vacant. So just what is it that separates the good from the bad and the great from the good in a junior SEO interview? If not experience, what’s required?

Here are 5 attributes I look for when recruiting junior level SEOs.

1. A Genuine Enthusiasm for Search

This starts right with your covering letter and CV. The Guardian published a brilliant piece about writing a CV when you have no direct experience. I highly recommend you read it!

You have to get across in writing initially that this is what you want to do. Tell me what you’ve done to learn about search off your own back and why search is for you.

In a face to face interview, you have a great opportunity to demonstrate enthusiasm. If you’re serious about getting started on a career with a search agency, you simply have to convey why. What do you love about it?

I’m not suggesting you’ve got 3 machines in your bedroom and you do SEO in your room in your own time 24 hours a day! But if you have a genuine enthusiasm and passion for something, it shows when you speak about it.

2. A Commercial Understanding

Far too often, SEO professionals become embroiled in rankings and traffic, when in reality, that’s not the ultimate goal. Our clients couldn’t care less about their rankings if they’re getting leads and sales through their websites. The rankings are just an effect of a good organic search campaign. So, on that basis, I look out for people who, despite having no direct experience of SEO, can demonstrate an understanding of its role in business. An ability to really get to the nitty gritty of what a business wants and deducing objectives that can be transferred to an SEO campaign is a valuable asset for any search professional, whatever their level of previous industry experience.

3. An Aptitude for Learning

This one’s harder to demonstrate in many ways. But given how steep the learning curve in SEO is for people just starting out, it is incredibly important that people learn quickly.

If you’ve taught yourself a skill before (no matter what that was) tell me about it. It shows that you’re able to learn. Anything you’ve gone off and learnt off your own back (self taught or through classes) whether search related or otherwise, shows a desire to learn and an ability to do so.

4. Transferrable Skills

I’m always looking for transferrable skills in junior applicants. Maybe you’re a great copywriter. Maybe you’ve written for some great publications – even if they’re offline. Maybe you’ve done some web development. You might have some excellent graphic design skill. You could be an absolute whizz with numbers and an incredibly analytical person.

If you have skills that can be applied in SEO, shout about them! That means that even as someone who has never done any hands on SEO before, you can walk right into the team and add some value from the outset.

5. You’ve Done Your Homework

You won’t get to an interview unless your cover letter and CV makes the reader believe you’ve done your homework – not just researching SEO but the agency that you’re applying to work for too.

I’m always looking out for someone who’s read up on SEO, who’s in tune with what’s happening in Google. Not necessarily because what you read is always right! But mostly because it shows effort being made to take as much information in as possible.

Reading up on the role and the agency is critical as well. If you get to interview stage, you’ve shown an understanding at the outset. But be prepared for an interviewer to dig a bit deeper during the interview!

Stacey Cavanagh is Head of Search at a UK Digital Marketing Agency called Tecmark. In her free time, she likes to blog, cycle and watch awful reality TV shows! She blogs at listingthings.co.uk.

Choose The Right Platform

Let’s start at the beginning and choosing your e-commerce software. Some ecommerce web hosting firms have developed their own software but before considering taking up niche proprietary software considering some key points. For instance, WordPress, Magento, Joomla, and Drupal are all well-known ecommerce platforms or content management systems with ecommerce capabilities when coupled with widely available and well supported plugins & modules.

Using any one of these options to start your ecommerce store is going to give you access to vast online informational resources. That’s because there are millions of websites running these solutions, rather than relying on individual organisations with bespoke systems that will require expensive modifications for some specific customisations.

However, the same cannot be said for the proprietary software of a hosting firm. The user communities of the well-established platforms are always testing the code and finding and fixing vulnerabilities. This makes them more secure providing the code base is kept up to date when new releases are made available. Also, a proprietary ecommerce solution built by a small team of developers will not have the same kind of resources to test for vulnerabilities that a vast community has.

But what happens if you want to move hosting, perhaps after a disagreement with your web host? A proprietary software solution means you are going to have to rebuild your website from scratch, which can be a painful experience for you and your customers. However, using one of the well-established ecommerce solutions coupled with regular back-ups of the website would allow you to migrate your store in just a short  matter of hours, rather than days or weeks.

There are also usually plenty of choices for finding web site designers to create themes and developers available for programming work as well as extending your website if you stick to using a better known solution.

It can be worth looking to get an SEO specialist to help improve your site in the Search Engine Results Pages – also called SERPs. And you ought to have more options for recruiting an affordable specialist if you are using one of the better known platforms where changes to your web content can be made easily.

So how do you know your web host adheres to good practices? A good starting point is reading up on the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council – called PCI SSC for short – and their Data Security Standards. An ecommerce web host worthy of your business should be signed up to and have PCI DSS version 2.0. This standard has 12 requirements that apply to any business that wishes to store, process or transmit cardholder information. The standard requires companies to continually monitor their internal processes and technology looking for potential weak spots using qualified independent assessors. For a good list of things to check with your webhost before committing check out this list on things to ask your ecommerce web host.

The Web Design Group is a small web agency based in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. I set the business up in 2011 as a work from home / garage business. Since then the business has gone from strength to strength. We find ourselves in march 2013 with 4 staff members and a nice little office in Ilkeston.

Our Speciality

As a group we have many years experience in the web industry, myself with over 14 years my business partner Mathew Porter has over 8 years working for some of the UK’s leading online retailers.

The main bulk of our work is with “Internet marketing”, SEO & PPC. We have a huge amount of experience with anything from email marketing to SEO, affiliate marketing and Pay Per Click advertising.

We have a small team of Internet marketers working endlessly for our clients, achieving the goals of their businesses.

We also have huge experience with ECommerce, both myself and Matt have been ECommerce managers for companies in the past and understand what it takes to succeed with online retail.

We primarily use Magento when designing and building ECommerce solutions for businesses, and are specialists in Magento SEO.

We understand the differences between service industry SEO and product based SEO, each has its own set of challenges to overcome.

How We Work.

We are truly a “group” of web companies, we work closely with other well known agencies within the East Midlands, specialists in their own field. This collaboration helps us pull resources from many areas of expertise which ensures we produce work of the highest standard.

If you would like to read more about The Web Design Group, please visit our company website – www.twdg.co.uk.

Social Signals Count

Google’s algorithm changes on a daily basis and it’s often hard to keep up. However, you should always remember that a link is classed as a vote in Google’s eyes, and it seems that it’s turning that way for social media as well. Every time someone tweets your post or likes it, in essence they are approving of your content and telling people they appreciate it.

This is one of the main reasons you should make sure you are implementing a strategy where your customers have an opportunity to share or tweet your content.

Shared Content Can Go Viral

The web is a fantastic medium for things to be spread and in most instances social media is the catalyst of this. If a good post or image is tweeted by someone with influence it can often change the whole scope of something that was just sitting on your website, to something that is being shared and spreading across the globe.

All this sharing will bring in a lot of traffic meaning you have another chance to capture a loyal visitor.

People Will Link To Your Content

Another side benefit of someone sharing your work is that they could even link to it from their blog as well. This effect is even bigger in the SEO community. If you manage to write an extremely good post on SEO it could get shared many times over. Many people in SEO own their own websites and could even share some link love if the content is that worthy of being spread to their audience.

People linking to your content can happen from anywhere and not just the SEO community, so always think of ways you can implement this into your strategy.

More Repeat Visitors

Having more visitors to your website that care about what you’ve done, and what you’re doing is a god-send for any online website. Even though SEO is predominantly about getting new visitors to your website, when you have returning ones it shows you’re doing something right. Social media can help this through sharing content to your users.

Believe it or not there will even be some users who will highly anticipate the release of your next content if they actually care what you’re putting out.

As you can see social media has a large part to play in SEO and can affect it in various ways. Make sure you are aware of this, and always look for ways you can get your audience involved with your content whether that’s through sharing, linking or spreading the word.

By Kev Massey, the CEO of seo3d.org. Follow seo3D’s important SEO tips and advice on Twitter.

So how are you supposed to go about all of this? Here are 6 excellent content marketing tips to help you start the New Year off on the right foot!

1)      Social media marketing and email marketing efforts should be aligned with content marketing strategies.

One of the most hotly anticipated marketing strategies for 2013 is integrated content marketing. In its most basic definition, integrated content marketing is defined as the incorporation of numerous different aspects of email and social media marketing with content marketing. Essentially, each Tweet that is sent out, Facebook status posted, or blog article published needs to be crafted with care and a flair that can be solely ascribed to your company. Consistency is going to build both brand trust and equity.

2)      Renewed emphasis is going to be placed on the importance of blog posts.

Think about it. Most businesses with an established web presence maintain an online blog. The chances are that your company does too. Instead of creating and publishing a short blog post and then moving on to the next thing on your to do list, each blog post should be viewed as a smaller part of your marketing campaign at large. Look for subject matter that is going to be engaging to your targeted demographic, but that will also establish your business as leading authority in your industry.

3)      Incorporate latent semantic indexing into your content marketing pieces.

Most of us are familiar with search engine optimization (SEO); however, not as many people are familiar with the concept of latent semantic indexing (LSI). Essentially, LSI is the taking of secondary keywords and working it into the content of the pieces that you are creating. Doing so is going to assist you in reaching a larger audience on the Internet.

4)      Harness the power of social media platforms.

It seems as though everyone is on Facebook these days, but you would be surprised at the number of companies who are not. While Facebook is certainly the most well-known social media platform, it is by no means the only one. Other options you should be looking into include LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus+, and even Instagram.

5)      Ensure that you include strong calls to action on each media platform.

Within each blog post, Facebook update, banner campaign, etc. there should be a strong call to action included. We already know that content marketing is the art of gentle persuasion, as opposed to “yelling”. However, your call to action is going to ensure that the potential client receives the last gentle push they need to make the right decision.

6)      Segment your email lists.

Email is an important component of content marketing. To make better use of this strategy, separate your mailing list contacts into different segments and then craft emails to each segment that is filled with content that is most relevant to them. Crafting messages that are specific to certain consumers is going to keep their interest piqued. Will it take more effort? Yes. Will the results be worth it? You bet.

With these 6 simple tips in mind, you are well on your way to making 2013 the best year ever for building your business’s brand presence on the Internet.

Toby Gonzales is the Revenue Manager for FBiFrames.com. He enjoys helping businesses implement their social media marketing plan.

I began to notice a shift in rankings for a few terms, they seemed to bounce around a little on the 16th then settle in a lower position on the 17th Jan.

After some digging around and “sounding the alarm” on Twitter I began to hear a bit of feedback from other SEO Consultants, all reporting a very similar set of circumstances. There is definitely something happening, SE Round Table have a post about this:

http://www.seroundtable.com/google-update-january-16230.html

Have a look through, but the general feeling is that it is effecting UK search only, there seems to have been a drop in back links for almost every site I check on www.ahrefs.com. Are these linking sites being hit too?

My gut feeling is that there has been another “Penguin Update” and the loss of rankings is due to back links being devalued.

A short and sweet post today.

Andy.

Below you will find a list of the UK search marketing and SEO conferences happening in 2013.

UK Search Conference

Date: 23rd Jan
Venue: The Commonwealth Club, London
Tickets: £125+VAT

The UK Search Conference is a follow on event from the UK Search Awards, a celebration of the very best in the country’s search marketing industry. It will feature winning case studies, keynote presentations and panel sessions including many of our search awards judges…

Search Me

Date: 1st Feb
Venue: The Studio, Manchester
Tickets: £95+VAT

Search Me offers a beginners guide to search marketing for PR & marketing professionals. It is a one day event which includes lunch, it is being held at The Studio, in Manchester. Attendees will get a details overview of what search engine marketing involves, including in-depth case studies. For further information please visit their website.

SES London

Date: 18th – 21st Feb
Venue: Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center, London
Tickets: £799 – £1799+VAT

SES is Europe’s leading search marketing conference, hosted by Search Engine Watch & ClickZ this is the 14th annual SES London. The conference covers a wide range of topics including latest trends and the challenges facing the industry. The event offers 3 days packed full of essential information delivered by industry leading speakers.

Think Visibility 9

Date: 2nd March
Venue: Alea Casino, Leeds
Tickets: £125+VAT

Think Visibility 9, search, social media and affiliate conference held in Leeds. Think Visibility is one of the best known SEO conferences within the UK, this is it’s 9th year and proves to be an exciting and highly informative conference. Not to be missed!!

Link Love

Date: 15th March
Venue: London
Tickets: £349 – £599+VAT

Link Love is a great SEO conference hosted by Distilled. Aimed primarily at SEO’s this is a one day conference which discusses many SEO topics, providing helpful tips and advice from a panel of industry leading SEO experts. I went to Link Love 2011 and found it to be really useful, I will hopefully be going again.

Brighton SEO

Date: 12th Apr
Venue: Brighton
Tickets: £TBC+VAT

The first of two this year, Brighton SEO has become one of the UK’s leading search marketing conferences, highly respected by SEO professionals throughout the country. This one day event provides valuable tips and advice to all levels of SEO consultant.

Internet World

Date: 23rd – 25th Apr
Venue: Earls Court, London
Tickets: £TBC+VAT

Internet World is a huge conference covering many aspects of internet based business and marketing, not specifically an SEO conference. However various topics on search engine marketing are being covered. I broad overview of the industry, at one of the largest venues.

SMX London

Date: 15th – 16th May
Venue: Chelsea Football Club, London
Tickets: £395 – £1890+VAT

Search Marketing Expo is the only search marketing conference designed exclusively for experienced internet marketers. Sessions are fast-paced, Q&A-packed, frequently controversial, always informative, not for beginners.

SAS Con

Date: 6th – 7th June
Venue: Manchester
Tickets: £TBC+VAT

SAScon, delivered in association with Manual Link Building, Manchester Digital and SEMPO is one of the UK’s finest Search, Analytics and Social Conferences and takes place each June in Manchester.

Online Marketing Show

Date: 26th – 27th June
Venue: Grand Hall, Oylmpia, London
Tickets: £TBC+VAT

Another all round internet and digital marketing conference, although not dedicated to SEO, past events have been insightful for internet marketers. The conference covers a wide range of topics within the internet marketing genre.

Brighton SEO

Date: September
Venue: Brighton
Tickets: £TBC+VAT

The second of two this year, Brighton SEO has become one of the UK’s leading search marketing conferences, highly respected by SEO professionals throughout the country. This one day event provides valuable tips and advice to all levels of SEO consultant.

Search Love

Date: 28th – 29th November
Venue: London
Tickets: £TBC+VAT

Search Love is another great SEO conference hosted by Distilled. Aimed primarily at SEO’s this is a one day conference which discusses many SEO topics, providing helpful tips and advice from a panel of industry leading SEO experts. Learn the latest techniques to remain one step ahead of the competition.