What is Facebook Graph Search? What’s New for Marketers?

March 4, 2013Facebook Marketing, PPC, Small Business Marketing, Social Media MarketingPeter Marino

The Digital Age has brought about whole new ways of doing things that would’ve never been possible before the Internet. As with most technological advances, the advent of the World Wide Web and social media websites has had a profound impact on the way people do business. No longer are the old advertising methods of billboards and newspapers considered the best marketing a company can get, and even in areas such as social media marketing, there is still constant evolution. The latest progression in this arena is the new Graph Search on Facebook, and marketers who don’t know about it soon will.

What is Facebook Graph Search?

The Graph Search on Facebook is the newest way for people to find things that they’re interested in. Everyone has seen the normal “search” function at the top of each Facebook page, but the Graph goes far beyond this. The Graph Search allows people to find things by using their common language. If a person wants to find restaurants that their friends have visited, they could simply type in “Restaurants my friends have eaten at.” This new feature, of course, goes much further.

The connections that people can make through Graph Search are all encompassing. A search of “friends who work at my company and enjoy hiking,” for instance, would immediately search a person’s network and return exactly what the user is looking for. Anyone who has ever marketed on Facebook knows what type of potential this could have. Instead of hoping that a fan will share a business’s, band’s or anything other Facebook page or post with their friends, these entities can now easily be found by their fans’ connections without said fan having to do anything.

The Repercussions of Graph Search

There’s no doubt that the Graph Search will have an effect on the marketing world, but most fail to realize just how big of an effect. Advertising Age, for instance, released a review entitled “How Facebook’s Graph Search Will Dethrone Google Search.” Facebook obviously has the edge on the aforementioned search terms (ie. bands my friends like), but the fireworks really start when Facebook cannot make sense of a specific search term.

Whenever a person enters a search term that Graph Search cannot process, it automatically provides search results from Bing, one of Google’s fiercest competitors. Experts expect that advertising dollars will slowly start to leave Google and go to Facebook, and this is especially expected in lifestyle and local arenas since those are the things people will often be looking for when using the Graph (ie. local services, restaurants and things to do).

How does Graph Search stack up in Social Media Marketing?

Many marketers may find it hard to look past their current social media marketing techniques and move on to Facebook Graph. This is understandable, but the feeling will eventually subside when they begin to realize how Graph Search stacks up against other marketing methods. A promoted post, for instance, may be slightly targeted, but it’s still going to show to many people who just don’t care while the price remains the same.

Facebook pay per click (PPC) ads are another way of advertising that Graph Search has a distinct advantage over. PPC ads are great since Facebook will only charge a person when their ad actually gets clicked. Anyone who has used this method of advertising, however, knows that the company with the deepest pockets gets the best marketing. PPC ads end up going to the highest bidder. For companies who are focusing on popular keywords and are facing off against larger companies, the bids of these clickable ads can quickly push them out of the market. When it comes to a promoted post or PPC ad, Graph Search is cheaper (free) and more targeted.

Facebook has been on the forefront of advancements in the business world numerous times over the past few years. It seems as if with their new Graph Search, they will likely continue this tradition. Every business owner, micropreneur, entrepreneur and anyone else who has a need to market will definitely need to promote their venture in as many ways as possible. As the Graph Search grows in size and popularity, however, the use of pay per click ads will likely start to show diminishing returns so get on the graph while its climbing!

Peter Marino always stays on top of the latest trends in the digital marketing world and is available for social media marketing and management.

Who are You Following on Twitter? 6 Creative Tweeters You Should Be Following

March 1, 2013Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter MarketingPeter Marino

Twitter may be a social networking site, but it also is a resource for professional creative types who want to grow a business or build a brand. If, for example, you are designing a site for an e-commerce client, your goal is to develop a design that attracts leads. Your design lures in visitors, and the client can learn even more about its customers using various software tools. Think of Twitter as your tool for learning all you can about the latest and greatest in Web and graphic design and user experience.

Check out and follow the Twitter accounts of 6 of the best Social Media zealots and user experience experts:

Terra Walker MrkuliÄ‡ @TerraIncognita

Social media manager, Red Sox fan and foodie, Terra offers her followers live support at LivePerson.com and somehow manages to be light and witty while responding to tweets that come in from customers and venders around the clock. She is an extremely attentive and creative social media guru. #keepitup!

Tim Van Damme @maxvoltar

Tim Van Damme is the creative mastermind behind photo app Instagram’s interface. Van Damme is “responsible for mobile design for both Android and iOS,” according to theindustry.cc. Catch up with Van Damme’s witty, inspirational Tweets and industry discussions by following him on Twitter.

Jason Santa Maria @jasonsantamaria

Brooklyn-based graphic designer Jason Santa Maria is featured in “Insites The Book” as one of 20 of the biggest names in the Web design industry. As he describes on his website, he has held myriad titles including “the founder and principal of the design studio Mighty,” “creative director for Typekit,” and “creative director for A List Apart.” He recently started a new venture, called “Editorially.”

Joshua Porter @bokardo

Director of UX at HubSpot, Joshua Porter shares insider secrets about interface design and social interaction on his blog Bokardo. Porter also serves the user experience community with his blog 52 Weeks of UX: A discourse on the process of designing for real people. Follow his Twitter and never miss a Bokardo posts on topics such as “What it’s really like working with Steve Jobs” and “Everything you need to know about SaaS.”

Alex Morris @aexmo

The self-proclaimed “obsessive tinkerer” Alex Morris is the user experience director for Mark Boulton Design. Morris has written a custom e-commerce platform and released a plethora of iOS applications. As described by CreativeBloq.com, “his very honest and opinionated Twitter feed” contains extensive Web design knowledge.

Paul Boag @boagworld

Paul Boag is the founder of Web design agency Headscape and host for Web design podcast BoagWorld.com. This talented user experience strategist engages followers on his Twitter feed by Tweeting about industry insights and creating dialogue with other Web design and digital leaders.

Using People In Your Web Design – Make It Look Professional Rather Than Awkward

February 25, 2013HTML5, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Web Designgraphi design, Web DesignPeter Marino

For a business there are many requirements that a website has to fulfill but one of the most important is that it should look professional. You want your website to reflect your organization in only the best light and make it look like you are capable, resourceful and skilled in everything that you involve yourself with. If you have a website that looks sub-par, or that doesn’t have a professional edge to it, then people will instead think that you either lacked the skills and resources, or that you aren’t bothered about doing jobs to the best of your ability. If your website looks like a child made it, then who is going to want to entrust you to handle their finances, or sell them computer parts? What’s to say they won’t be just as shoddy?

With this in mind, using images of real people in your web design is a risky move and one that can go either way. While having people on your site can inspire confidence if it looks professionally done (the assumption would be that you hired professional models and photographers), it can also end up being unintentionally funny if they end up looking awkward or it’s obvious you took the pictures yourself. So how can you ensure that you get the human element right and make your site look corporate and impressive rather than like a fun day out with your friends?

Use the Right Services

The first thing to do is to outsource. You may be tempted to try and do this yourself, but unless you are professionally trained in taking and editing great photos and you have a model friend it won’t look right. Your web design company should be able to handle it for you, but if they can’t make sure you find someone who can.

The Models

You also need to make sure that you find the right models to demo your products or services for you. This means finding people who are attractive because this will make your company look more desirable and successful, and it means dressing them in a ‘power dressing’ kind of way. Look for diversity in your models too and you will make your business appeal to a wider audience.

Additionally you also need to ensure that your models are good actors – if they are even a little bit self conscious it will come across, so ensure they have experience behind a camera before pointing one at them.

Setting

The setting of your photos is equally important. If you have a professional looking work environment that says what you want to say about your business then it’s fine to use that as long as you have the right lighting. Otherwise, see if you can rent somewhere else or speak with your designers.

Editing

The way you edit your pictures can also have a big impact on how effective they are. This is again something best left to the pros, who will be able to enhance the lighting and contrast to give the images that glossy magazine-style feel, and who can use airbrushing to remove any blemishes or mistakes.

Author: Vadim Kirichenko is the brains behind today’s guest post. He likes sharing his views on online marketing and SEO. He says a good advertisement is the one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself. He also says that a good web design is nothing more than creative way of attracting people to your website.

The Easy and Search Friendly Way to
Setup 301 Redirects

February 25, 2013HTML5, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Technology, Web DesignPeter Marino

As many of you know I recently updated my entire website and in the process I had to setup 301 redirects for the new page names. Why should you do this when updating a site? It’s simple, when someone does a search on Google, Bing or Yahoo! it would yield a blank or 404 error page if there is no 301 redirect implemented. A 301 redirect basically takes the old URL/page name and redirects it to the new page or URL. Thus the information a prospective client is searching for will still come up seamlessly This can mean the difference between a new client and a passerby. But wait, couldn’t I have created the new pages with the old file names, Yes, I could have but I believe the newer page names I made are contextually more appropriate to the current content and making them more SEO friendly. Also, I didn’t want to lose all of that old “Google juice” I had built up over the last 5 years, hence, I needed a 301 redirect. There are many ways to setup 301 redirects but the following way is the easiest and most search engine friendly approach. However, it should be noted that this HTAccess approach is for Apache servers only.

Open a simple text file and name it .htaccess (you can not use Word or WordPad it must be a simple text editor with no formatting).

Depending on what you’re trying to do, redirect an entire site to a new domain or just redirect a page it would be as shown below.

Redirecting a single page

Redirect 301 /oldpage.html http://www.yoursite.com/newpage.html Redirect 301 /oldpage2.html http://www.yoursite.com/folder/

Redirect an entire site

This way does it with links intact. That is, www.oldsite.com/some/link.html will become www.newsite.com/some/link.html. This is extremely helpful when you are just “moving” a site to a new domain.
Place this on the OLD sites HTAccess file:
Redirect 301 / http://newsite.com/

Here is an example of my .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine on

ErrorDocument 404 /404.html

%{HTTP_HOST} ^www.reelwebdesign.com$ ^/?$ "http\:\/\/reelWebDesign\.com" [R=301,L]

Redirect /web_SMM_packages_NYC.html http://reelwebdesign.com/social-media-marketing-plans.php Redirect /web_SEO_packages_NYC.html http://reelwebdesign.com/SEO-packages-NYC.php Redirect /web_design_ny.html http://reelwebdesign.com/contact.html Redirect /online_public_relations.html http://reelwebdesign.com/press-release-writing.html Redirect /pay-per-click-management.html http://reelwebdesign.com/PPC-management.html Redirect /local_SEO_packages.html http://reelwebdesign.com/local-SEO-packages.php Redirect /web-design-services.php http://reelwebdesign.com/web-design-services.html

Notice the 404 Error Document is telling the browser to go to my 404.html file. This is another handy feature to implement in your .htaccess file.

Happy redirecting!