How To Become An ITK (In The Know) On Social Media. As you may have guessed from previous posts, I have a slight liking for Social Media and how it’s used to outreach to audiences you would otherwise never get the chance to speak to. I love the fact that we can all read the latest news in real-time to the point where eyewitnesses more often than not are now the ones reporting on events long before any News Channel turns up. Social Media has allowed everyone who can log on to have a voice and to connect with anyone anywhere. The power of Social is phenomenal. Yet it has also brought about the rising of figures known, especially on Twitter, as ITK’s. These guys are the “In The Knows”.
These are the people who have the inside information on stories that no one else does. These guys are the oracle. Most importantly, these are the people who, without us consciously thinking about it, have become the people we see as authorities on subjects they specialise in. However, many of these figures don’t actually know anything at all. Well most don’t. #AskHarry Is the Latest Football Twitter Chat Fail. What’s my favourite social platform? Well its Twitter, seeing as you asked. An awesome platform and you can do so much with it. Set up a programme like Tweetdeck correctly you can be at almost any event on the planet, sell your services or products, keep an eye on what people are saying about you and raise your own profile as well as your brands.
You can even have a one to one with almost any company (those who are monitoring their Twitter handle). One of the growing trends on Twitter is that of the “Twitter Chat”. And then there are Twitter Chats run by football clubs. Now, no football club, player or manager has ever suffered as a result of one of these chats. I have never, ever seen a successful one. This gave Queens Park Rangers fans the opportunity to put their questions to their manager Harry Redknapp. And boy did it happen.
The problem is these chats will never work. I’m a football fan and I would find it hard to name over four current QPR players. QPR are certainly not alone. How To Gain More Followers On Social Media. Hi guys. Today I’m going to be talking about a question that seems to come up quite a bit in conversation at the moment and that is ‘How do I get more followers on my social media platforms?’ First off, social media … I think we’ve got to the stage now where if you’re a online business, you need to have a presence socially. I know a lot of businesses still feel nervous about getting into this kind of field, they don’t want people to be able to leave comments about them on Facebook or tweet about them on Twitter or anything like that.
I think we’ve got to the stage now where so much information is taken by the likes of Google regarding social media activity, be it conversations, retweets, people engaging [and] sharing content from online businesses, that it’s unavoidable. But, how do you get followers once you’ve got your profile set up? Well, the first step is to make sure that you are completely optimised. In the same breath, don’t buy followers either. Engage, be human. The Ultimate List Of Local SEO Resources. In 2011 I put together a list of 21 Local SEO resources to help those out who were looking to gain a better presence locally in Google. Since then Local SEO has become a highly important element of digital marketing. The more Google strive to return a personal experience the more it has become important to ensure that you have your Local rankings in place – even if you are targeting a nationwide audience. Google updates, including the Venice update (which is now quite an old one – however one that a lot of online businesses are still unaware of) mean that if Google deems your search query to have local intent behind it – you will receive local results as part of your result pages.
A lot has changed since the original 2011 post so here is an updated list of resources that will help you conquer Local SEO: Free Whitepaper If you’re looking for an in-depth introduction into what Local SEO is and the factors that you need to consider then our free whitepaper is an excellent place to start. Tools. The Case of Katie Hopkins and Other Deliberate Hate Figures. Before the 4th July 2013 most people (who could remember) knew Katie Hopkins as a former candidate on the BBC show The Apprentice in 2006. Of those of us who watched the show we remember her as the one we all enjoyed hating. She was the show’s villain for that series. Her outrageous claims on her CV that she would do anything to get what she wanted – including her husband whom she stole from his ex-wife, did little to warm the hearts of Sir Alan Sugar or the TV audience.
By 6:00pm on the 4th July 2013 and one controversial TV appearance later, almost everyone in the UK knew who Katie Hopkins was. Within a few days she was actually pretty well known in most countries. Why? Complete with examples of what she felt certain names meant and indicating an element of snobbery, this rubbed everyone in the country up the wrong way. Twitter went mad with everyone jumping online to have their say. The result – everyone now knows who Katie Hopkins is. Real-Time Lives So what should you do? Or. Local SEO - A Complete Guide for 2013 | Andy Williams SEO.
A majority of site owners are fully aware that they need to optimise their site to stand a chance of competing in the search engine rankings. However this majority aren’t aware of the importance of also incorporating a Local SEO strategy. The trap so many site owners fall into is that because they aren’t targeting a local audience they don’t need to incorporate a Local SEO campaign. This is a huge mistake to make. The Venice update is an old Google update but it was largely missed. The update meant that if you searched for a term that Google deemed to have local intent you would be returned local results – even if you weren’t logged into your Google account.
This has changed everything. In my latest Whiteboard video I provide an extensive overview of what you need to do to ensure you don’t miss out Areas Covered: Local On-Page OptimisationLocal ListingsSocial MediaReviewsCitations Summary Title The Ultimate Guide To Local SEO Description. Is It Better To Be A Generalist or A Specialist in Digital Marketing?
When I first started out, I was an SEO. That was what I did and that was what I was. It became my area of expertise. Completely self-taught I researched the subject and learnt along the way. But that was as far as it went. I took in all things SEO, I read all things SEO but I never went beyond SEO. As this was what I focused on and practiced, I guess I would have been classed as a specialist. These days I still refer to myself as an SEO but in truth I stopped being simply an SEO a very long time ago. While SEO is still an essential part of any online campaign there are now so many other outside influences that shouldn’t be ignored. Can you be a specialist in just one area of digital marketing or are we now at the stage where you need to be a master of all trades? The Black and White Pathe Film Section “Back when I were a lad”.
Back when I started in SEO, it was heavily about On-Page. Alright it wasn’t quite that simple but it wasn’t far off. Then of course there was link building. Mastering Local SEO - A Complete Guide. This morning I am speaking at the On the Edge conference in Bristol on the subject of Mastering Local SEO. This post contains my slides and a summary of the presentation. Local SEO has evolved over the last year. Now more than ever online businesses need a local search strategy, regardless of whether they are targeting a nationwide, international or local audience.
Google+, the Venice update and Google’s desire to provide searchers with a more personalised experience now make local SEO an element you can’t afford to ignore. Google Venice Update Compared to the huge number of recent Google updates, Venice is a relatively old update but is often hugely overlooked. Now whenever you search for a term that may have local intent you will be provided with local results regardless of whether you have entered a location or not. Local SEO Local SEO can be broken down into four main areas: On Page OptimisationLocal Listings and ProfilesSocial MediaReviewsCitations On Page Optimisation Social Media Reviews. The Complete Guide to Local SEO. Hi. Today I’m going to be looking at local SEO. Now this is one of those subjects that a lot of people continue to overlook, and they don’t realise how important local SEO is. Even if you haven’t gotten an audience that you feel is local and you’re targeting a more national or international audience, local SEO is still something that you should look into.
It’s still something that you should optimise for. Now the reason for this is the Venice update, which is something I’ve gone into in previous videos, and this is an update that came out from Google around about I’d say 18 months ago. Now the big change was that you didn’t need to be logged into your Google profile in order for this to happen. Now knock-on effect of this, of course, is if you hold the top one or the top two rankings for a term and Google deems this to have local intent behind it, the local information that is suddenly displayed instead could actually knock you down to page one or even page two in the rankings.
What The Edinburgh Fringe Festival Taught Me About Digital Marketing. August 2nd 2013 sees the start of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (or Festival Fringe if you prefer), the biggest arts festival in the world. Around 1,500 acts will all descend on Edinburgh in a bid to get good reviews, possibly get spotted, find agents and of course to bring in the audiences. The Edinburgh Fringe brings back good memories for me having taken a show up there with my best mate in 2003 in my comedic persona. Were we any good? We were awesome (and we can all write our own reviews). However the work that went into it during that month actually taught me quite a few lessons that hugely mirror digital marketing. No they won’t. You could have the greatest comedy show in Edinburgh during that month but if no one knows about it or is told about it, they won’t come. You are up against 1,499 other shows.
So you need to make sure your audience know you are there, they know where to go, at what time and how amazingly funny you are. It’s no different for your online business. Be Social.