The Buyer Group PR + SEO News

Starving for the latest stats, figures and social media rankings?  So were we…

According to a study from Compete.com, Facebook has taken first place for unique visitors, which are now more than 68 million, as well as monthly visits, topping out at nearly 1.2 billion for the month of January.

MySpace is now the second most used social media site (58 million), with Twitter in distant third place (6 million).  Even with the dramatic growth Twitter has experienced in the past year, its still lags behind social media giants Facebook and MySpace.

Looking for more detailed info about these sites?

A Nielsen study supports the finding of compete.com but ranks the social media outlets by total minutes spent on each site.  Here, Facebook again edged out MySpace and this time, quite handily. Facebook users logged a combined 13.9 billion minutes on the site compared to the 5 billion minutes spent on MySpace. Twitter recorded roughly 300 million minutes, with LinkedIn at about 200 million.

Overall, the total time spent on social media sites has increased by 83 percent in the past year, according to Nielsen.  Amazing.

Social media statistics 09, presented by The Buyer Group.

Although we haven’t heard from Moses lately, and these commandments aren’t carved in stone, The Buyer Group holds true to its faith in social media.

Inspired and written by Lon Safko, author of The Social Media Bible, the 10 Commandments of Social Media preach the ease and importance of actively engaging audiences through social media channels.

Safko suggests, “Get out there and get involved. If you aren’t in the game, you can’t win.”

Concurring with that motto in mind, here are Safko’s 10 Commandments of Social Media and The Buyer Group’s reflection each commandment’s importance to online PR.

1. Thou Shalt Blog
Yes, with or without a custom branded blog.  Get out there, use keywords and interact with your subscribers.  Blog about interesting topics that are newsworthy, relevant and interesting to readers.

2. Thou Shalt Create Profiles
Yes, on high traffic social media sites. The Buyer Group manages profiles for clients on social media sites: Yelp, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Don’t waste time creating profiles on sites you will never manage or pay attention to, quantity over quality.

3. Thou Shalt Upload Photos
Yes, Flickr is a must.  We see SEO benefits in a little under 24 hours when using appropriate keywords on Flickr.

4. Thou Shalt Upload Videos
Yes, YouTubing for champions – the newest sport at the 2010 summer Olympics, kidding. Creating optimized video on YouTube not only adds to a company’s SEO benefits, it also puts a face with the brand.

5. Thou Shalt Podcast
Yes, If you have time and energy to put into developing quality topics and scripts.  Don’t just impromptu speak into your computer mic on record.

6. Thou Shalt Set Alerts
Yes, if you do not have Google Alerts and TweetBeep, you are seriously missing out.  These free monitoring systems let companies know who is talking about their brand and when.

7. Thou Shalt Comment
Yes, always post comments on similar blogs.  Interact with others that are interested in your same topics.  Trade links and share articles.

8. Thou Shalt Get Connected
Yes, the more people you know in your industry the better.  The more people those people know, the more opportunities your brand has to surface in front of a new audience.

9. Thou Shalt Explore Social Media
YES, don’t be afraid of learning about social media! Start by getting your toes wet. Choose one of the networks listed in number two and spend some time on it.  This will give you an introduction to what social media is all about, and for some, it opens doors to connect with new friends or gain a new business venture.  And as always, if your business would like The Buyer Group to work on your social media endeavors, feel free to contact us today.

10. Thou Shalt Be Creative
Yes, no online likes a copycat.  If your idea is not original, do not use it.  And if you are going to work off someone else’s idea, give the author credit.  So, on that note: please take the time to read the entire article by Lon Safko detailing his take on each social media commandment.

While social media can seem overwhelming for a business, it is important to remember that what you don’t know CAN hurt you.  If someone is out there representing your brand (cyber squatting) or speaking negatively about your company, sitting back and doing nothing is not proactive and is definitely not a recommended practice by The Buyer Group.

As search engines continue to multiply and evolve, the giant Microsoft has launched its newest search offering, http://www.Bing.com, which for the realm of online PR adds to the list of places to be found and people to be seen.

New user-friendly features by Bing include:
•    A ‘related searches’ column on the left side of the page sorted by categories: news, video, images, and shopping sites
•    Each search result has a ‘preview’ option that pops up when moused-over
•    Clean, user-friendly design
•    Geo-targeted search, pushing local sites to the top of the list
•    Updated SEO guidelines (important for web site owners)

All of the above features are speculated to draw serious eyes to the search tool and many of which are expected to stay put. With a fragmented set of online eyes, online PR experts need to make sure their clients web sites and online reputations are reachable by all – user and search engine-friendly.

Thankfully, Bing is offering a Webmaster Center that allows online PR firms and online reputation managers to authenticate a site, check the value of back links, and see where each site ranks within Bing for various keywords.  Being listed in Bing.com should be at the top of the priority list for every company.  Just how Google maps offers a local business directory, which has recently added a much-appreciated set of analytics, Bing.com’s local directory and maps section may become a go-to source for online directory searches.

Likewise with Google Maps and Yahoo Local, Bing.com has a specific set of SEO (search engine optimization) strategies that will improve the rankings of pages.  Bing.com recommends writing unique, keyword-rich content for readers, rather than web crawlers.  It is also important to use title, meta and H1 tags to help search engines identify what specific content on each page is about.

For information on how The Buyer Group can help you gain greater visibility through search engine optimization, contact Lisa Buyer at lbuyer@thebuyergroup.com today.

One of the latest challenges in the SEO and online PR world is the issue of duplicate content.  One of the latest challenges in the SEO and online PR world is the issue of duplicate content.

While it may be mildly annoying for you to read the same sentence twice, duplicate content is a major problem for search engines trying to return unique and distinct results.

At The Buyer Group, we are constantly learning about the ever-changing realm of SEO (search engine optimization) and apply these tactics into our online PR practices.  Oftentimes, companies try to take the easy way out to deliver their message, in hopes to rank higher or produce more in search results.  This includes taking one page of content from a Web site and placing it on another site such as a blog or social media channel.

Unfortunately, this approach will not produce better search results at all.  Unless the content is heavily edited from one page to a next, using this practice will lead to issues within search results.  Search engines like Google figured this detour out quite some time ago and has adapted to filter search results that only display one set of duplicate content among its highest results.  So for example, if a company takes a Web page from their Web site and posts it on their blog, the search engine will only show one of these pages in the search results.

When it comes to online public relations, it is important for content to be thought out and uniquely designed across a company’s online real estate.  Strategic social media participation in addition to an optimized Web site can greatly increase the exposure of any company.

For information on how The Buyer Group can optimize your Web site for greater search results and brand your company’s presence on social media contact Lisa Buyer today at 954.354.1411 x 14 or lbuyer@thebuyergroup.com.

It’s no secret that traditional newspapers are facing an uphill battle when it comes to circulation and readership in this era of fast-paced, on-demand and online news. Instead of fighting this current, the South Florida Business Journal is riding it, using social media and online tactics to attract new readers and boost distribution of its stories.

Speaking at a breakfast presented by Business Wire, Kevin Gale, editor of the South Florida Business Journal, described how his paper is amending its business model to stay afloat in today’s market.

The paper is using Twitter posts, RSS feeds, cooperating with search engines and allowing users to e-mail copies of stories through its Web site in an effort to promote content in the weekly print editions.

While some papers feel Google has hurt the exclusivity of news stories, the South Florida Business Journal cooperates with the search engine to drive traffic to its site, Gale said.  Twitter serves the same purpose through tweets that link users directly to the Journal’s news stories.

“We want our site to be an electronic water cooler,” he said. “It’s become a place where people can gather to read and discuss analytical and insightful news of South Florida businesses.”

In the ever-changing, fast-paced world of social media, there is always something new to learn. Continually striving to be ahead of the PR curve, The Buyer Group took part last week in an emerging technology webinar presented by SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization).

The webinar highlighted the intersection between social media and online search results. SEMPO stressed that the future of all media is social and that search engines are increasingly displaying social media as top results.

SEMPO also explained that social media usage is more frequent and strategic than ever, pointing out that over 90 percent of SEM (search engine marketing) agencies are using Facebook as a public relations tool – good thing, considering 31 percent of CEOs have are active on Facebook.

The instant response platforms of social media sites have allowed for more brand communication than ever, placing new pressure on companies to monitor and engage in dialogue with consumers.  For information on how your business can use social media to its advantage contact Lisa Buyer at lbuyer@thebuyergoup.com.

Demonstrating the explosive growth of social media sites, USA Today may have become the world’s first major news outlet to write a story entirely from interviews on Twitter, the Web’s newest hotspot.

According to a social media webinar presented by SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization), more than 14% of CEOs are now actively tweeting.  USA Today Money Section’s Del Jones completed his story exclusively with CEO sources reachable through Twitter.

This statistic highlights SEMPO’s assertion that the future, if not the present, of all media is social.  Even more important to the world of online public relations is the intersection between social media sites and online search results. SEMPO stressed the point that search engines are increasingly displaying social media as top results.

The instant response platforms of social media sites have allowed for more to be said about brands than ever, placing new pressure on companies to monitor and engage in dialogue with consumers.  For information on how your business can use social media to its advantage contact The Buyer Group at lbuyer@thebuyergoup.com.

The Buyer Group’s CEO, Lisa Buyer, along with social media intern, Matt Innes, stepped up to bat yesterday with former Florida Marlin’s All Star Jeff Conine filming video testimonials for the Shop To Earn/Shop To Earth network. Five videos were produced detailing ‘Mr. Marlin’s’ personal and business experiences with ShopToEarn.

The clips were filmed in Conine’s personal memorabilia room and will be used as part of Shop To Earn’s social media PR strategy. They will be released on Shop To Earn’s Facebook, YouTube and Twitter channels.

Conine calls Shop to Earn his “third career” after winning two World Series with the Marlins as a player and now serving as a Special Assistant to the President in the team’s front office.

Stay tuned for the full details about Jeff Conine joining ShopToEarn and check out the YouTube video interview here.

Matt Innes is the newest member of The Buyer Group team, working as a social media intern for the summer of 2009.  A senior at the University of Florida, Matt is majoring in Public Relations with minors in Sports Management, Entrepreneurship and Education. He is a member of UF’s PRSSA chapter and his previous journalism experience includes writing for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel’s Next Generation program.

Matt’s role at The Buyer Group ranges from helping update client’s social media channels, writing and editing content for press releases and blogs and assisting in meetings with clients.

“I know that interactive public relations and social media are the future of the communications industry,” said Innes.  “I am honored and excited to have the opportunity to work with The Buyer Group this summer. My goal is to learn about public relations, branding and social media as it relates to the professional realm.”

Below is a photo of Matt Innes and Jeff Conine, a former Florida Marlins player.  This was taken during one of Innes’ first assignments, filming testimonial videos for The Buyer Group client, ShopToEarn.

Lisa Buyer returns from Los Angeles where she was a featured speaker at the Shop to Earn Six Steps to Success conference.  Her presentation focuses on the growing popularity, power and influence of social media.

Lisa demonstrates how Shop to Earn representatives can get started on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn as a way to maximize their business networks.  The live presentation was taped and will be a part of the Shop to Earn training videos for all members.

If your business in interested in applying public relations or social media strategies contact Lisa Buyer at lbuyer@thebuyergroup.com.