But once you’ve made the connections and have the attention of those that have decided to follow you, what now? How can you add value to their Twitter experience and keep them engaged and listening? Here are some tips that just may help keep them from losing interest and leaving.

• Tweet Regularly: Tweeting on a daily basis is always a good idea. Make it a habit like checking your email everyday. People who haven’t heard anything in awhile will tend to get bored and unfollow people, moving onto greener pastures.

• Quality Over Quantity: I know, I know. We just said to tweet regularly and often. But before you send your 100th tweet for the day, take a minute to evaluate the content of the tweet. Sure your mom might find it very interesting to know that you ‘Just downed my fourth soy mocha espresso macchiato for the day,’ but will anyone else? Make sure the information you’re sending out is useful and interesting to the majority of your followers.

• Separate Personal and Business Accounts: You may want to consider setting up separate business and personal accounts. You don’t want your personal views reflecting negatively on your professional image. It’s easy to lose followers with just one tweet.

• Be Engaging: Reach out and get to know your followers. We all like to feel that we’re more than just some pixels on a followers list. Use Twitter to help build relationships and establish communication.

• You’re More Than Just a Link: With millions of people using Twitter everyday, it’s important to make yourself stand out from the stream. Don’t just post or retweet links. Keep it interesting and provide your thoughts and insight on the subject matter.

• Keep It Real: Don’t lose sight of who you are in the process. Don’t be afraid to just be yourself and don’t try to be something you’re not. People will appreciate you more for it.

Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to building a loyal and lasting Twitter following!

And now that we have your attention, why not follow us on Twitter?

With the number of users and visits on Facebook growing everyday, it’s safe to say that it has become a powerful marketing tool and medium for companies to generate buzz and excitement for their products and services and to get the attention of loyal customers and even gain new ones.

Here’s a sample of how other companies have used Facebook in their promotional efforts.

• Pepsi’s Refresh Project Uses Facebook to Award Millions to Charity
• Universal Handing Out Free Blu-Ray Movies To Facebook Fans
• 2010 Census Turns to Facebook to Maximize Impact, Reach Young Adults
• IKEA’s Genius Use of Photo Tagging in Facebook
• Mexican Government Uses Facebook to Combat Tourism Declines

With its site offering a platform where companies are reinventing the standards of marketing, Facebook clearly has become more than just a “social” network. Is your company harnessing that power?

So as an advertiser, how can you adjust your online campaign(s) to better reach this demographic?

Here are ways to target your online campaigns (specifically AdWords) to reach the Hispanic market.

• When setting up your campaign, you can select the Spanish language box in your language setting options. By doing so, your ads will reach users searching Google in the Spanish interface. Note:  In this scenario, users would still need to search on the English keyword and ads would appear in English.
• If you’re looking to take the extra step to reach your intended Hispanic visitors, setting up a separate AdWords campaign with translated keywords and ads is the way to go. By creating a second campaign in Spanish, you’ll be sure to reach Hispanic users that search in both English and Spanish. Google provides tools to assist in the translation, or you can utilize the services of a third-party vendor.
• Make sure the designated landing page for your campaign takes users to a useful page. If a user clicks on an ad in Spanish, leading them to an English-only website would negate your efforts and provide for poor user experience. Make sure your landing page addresses the Spanish-speaking user either through a translated page or an action item that directs Spanish users where to go (i.e. a phone number to call to get more information).

By knowing how to better reach Hispanic users through your AdWords efforts, you’ll be better equipped to create smarter, more effective campaigns.

A recent study about search engine ranking factors, highlights where keywords are most effective on a website. The study results were gathered from a 2009 poll taken by a panel of 72 SEO experts. The top ranking on-page (keyword-specific) ranking factor was using the keyword in the title tag on the page.

Summarizing methods that we already knew and what these findings supported, here are tips on where to place your keywords on your site:

• Title Tags. Get your keyword into the first couple of words in the title tag if possible.
• Domain Name and URL. This one’s more difficult we know. Many of us don’t have a site devoted to just one topic, rather a collection of topics. So if your keyword can’t be in the root domain name, consider adding it to the subdomain name or page name URL.
• Headings On The Page.  Get your keyword into the H1 tag/main headline on your page. 
• Copy On The Page. Include your keyword in the copy of the page. This will let Search Engines find the content on your site that does relate to the keyword searched on.
• Internal and External Linking. Include your keyword in any internal cross-linking or external linking to your site. Include this method in your internal SEO practices. When possible, request external sites that are linking to your site to include the specific keyword in their link.
• Description Meta Tag. Include your keyword in the description meta tag. Google will pull the description meta tag and display it in the search results, if the keyword is included.
• Image Alt Text. Include your keyword in your brief descriptive image alt tags.

And, of course, always make your page and/or website relevant to your keyword with rich, supporting content, videos and images. Remember, keywords are still important, it’s just a matter of how you use them.

What some people don’t realize is that having your own blog gives you a stage to share ideas and have a continuous channel of communication with the world. Why not take advantage of this arena of information exchange? Here are some reasons to consider blogging (if you haven’t already):

• Blogs allow you to share important news and information with your clients, customers and industry in a timely and convenient manner.
• Blogging displays real dedication and excitement for your industry. Many won’t be able to sustain blogs over long periods of time with regularity, but those who can separate themselves from the crowd and develop loyal customers and followers.
• Blogging can be a great method to help promote your products, company or yourself.
• Blogs allow a direct line of constant communication between you and your customers.
• Blogs, even old ones, are valuable and continue to be read for years. By optimizing them for search engines, they also continue to live in indexes for years.
• You are the master of your own domain! Blogging allows you to have control over your own content and how it is presented.
• Blogs add value to your website as a whole, adding more value with each blog post.
• Blogs can increase visitors to your website. A well-written and well-optimized blog can attract search engines and traffic to your website.
• Blogs play a huge role in social media. It’s as essential as having a Twitter and FaceBook account.

Now get out there and blog!

We’re all familiar with the current leading players in the social networking realm such as Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace and LinkedIn, who have all earned their rightful place in the social network rankings. But what about the other hundreds of social networking sites that have the potential to be the next “it” site to the new generation of network-hungry, blog-obsessed, tweet-crazed online users? Here’s a run-down of some other popular social networking websites out there.

• Bebo.com – Bought by AOL, this site has been gaining ground in the U.S. Bebo allows users to personalize their profile, add applications, set privacy settings and join groups. Their personalization choices are numerous and their security measures are good.
• Flickr.com – Owned by Yahoo, this site allows users to share and comment on photos and images. It allows paid members to store short videos. It also serves as a popular image repository among bloggers.
• Friendster.com – Friendster has an assortment of features to customize a profile with more than 250 different applications that a user can add. Privacy settings allow users to see the last 100 people who have viewed their profile and set limits or blocks.
• Hi5.com – Hi5 is created and headquartered in the United States, but it is more popular in other countries, particularly in Latin America. It offers a variety of features such as chat rooms, groups and profile customization and is … wait for it … completely advertisement free.
• Ning.com – Ning is an online platform for people who want to create their own social networks around specific interests with their own visual design, choice of features and member data.
• Orkut.com – This site is Google’s attempt at social networking. In order to open an Orkut account you must have a Gmail account where all your updates, message and requests are forwarded. Orkut follows a similar path as FaceBook and does not have any profile customization options, but you can upload photos, create albums and add apps like other sites.

Today, press releases provide a large volume of content to search engines and can rank highly in Google, Yahoo and Bing. Studies have shown that journalists and consumers are searching for and reading online press releases for story ideas and background information. This underlines the importance of optimizing your release so that it is easier to find for your audience and so that it can act as a tool to attract and direct traffic to your website.

Here are some tips to help optimize your next press release:

• Research and choose appropriate keyword phrases
• Add these keyword phrases (so that they read naturally) to your press release title, sub heading and throughout the body copy
• Use keyword phrases in links to landing pages or other company website pages instead of phrases like  “Click Here.”
• Include different media with your release (images, video, audio)
• Provide your release in multiple formats (text, MS Word, PDF, HTML)
• In addition to posting your release to your company website (PR/News section), distribute it  through newswire services like PRWeb, PRNewswire and/or Business Wire
• Write a blog about the news and include a link
• Tweet about the release and include a condensed link via TinyURL.com or Bit.ly

An interesting fact about the production of the commercial is how the hybrid’s electric drive mode made it possible to move the car on the set while producing zero emissions. Now that’s green advertising!

With the rise of consumers who are more aware and concerned about the state of the environment, we see the rise of companies that are addressing these consumer concerns in their marketing. Whether it’s through simple product packaging changes to developing new products and services that radically reduce materials, energy, and waste, companies are making the effort to let consumers know that they’re doing their part to save the planet.

According to the NBC “Green is Universal” poll, 60% of consumers will buy eco-friendly products even if they cost more. Sixty-two percent say, “I am buying more environmentally responsible products than I did a year ago,” while 73% believe that “green” is good for the economy. Further, 85% of respondents say that companies have a social responsibility to protect the environment while 19% say they have boycotted a company/product in the past year because it had policies and practices that were not environmentally responsible. (Source, Adage 4/20/09)

As the marketplace continues to fill with new products and services everyday, social responsibility will often sway consumer motivation and increase demand for products and services advertised as eco-friendly. This new demand becomes a very good reason why advertisers will continue to make green advertising a trend that we’ll continue to see more of in the future.