Category Archives: Uncategorized
Top 5 Trends in Pay Per Click
People are always looking for new opportunities in future marketing trends. With new opportunities come new possibilities and new potential for growth. Here are five new trends in PPC that you should consider for 2013:
- Take advantage of mobile
We’re entering an age where more people are accessing the internet with their mobile devices than they are with PCs. What’s surprising is how few advertisers are engaging in mobile or preparing for what is to come as far as PPC is concerned.
- Encourage Microconversions
Microconversions are a big hit with savvy advertisers and it’s becoming one of the next big buzz terms, but it isn’t a new concept. Microconversions are any action taken on a website that isn’t the main conversion goals. These could be things like blog comments, brochure downloads, newsletter registration, location look-up or views for a certain page.
- Launch a video campaign
Is there a way to incorporate video into your current website or marketing strategy? Find a way to create a video that is useful and relevant to your customers. Think about something that would interest your audience, such as tips, how-to’s, or product demos.
- Be dynamic
New features like Dynamic Display Ads offer ability to see creative dynamically generated to specific users. This tool creates ads through a template with products from the merchant feed. Determine whether a dynamically generated ad could work for you and resolve any of the barriers you may have to them. Dynamic ads are becoming more and more competitive, so it’s best to start doing this before your competition gets the head start.
- Play to Savvy Shoppers
Shopping behavior has changed a lot as the internet becomes a bigger part of everyone’s lives. Reviews and local searches are big influencers and can all be incorporated into PPC advertising. Figure out how your customers are behaving and select features you think can be reasonably implemented.
PPC is only projected to grow and become more complicated as time goes on. Businesses who take advantage of new trends and technologies with solid plans will reap the benefits. If you’re interested in PPC advertising, call CyberMark International today to get started at 623-889-3380.
WordPress for Beginners: 5 Tips You Should Know
WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms that exist, mostly for its versatility and user-friendliness. But if you’re just starting out, there are a few small things you can do to completely change your WordPress experience for the better.
- Schedule Posts for the Future
Following a set publishing schedule can be great for your blog and help your readers know when to look for your content. If you find yourself wanting to space out your posts or if you want to post something during a time when you know you won’t be available to do it, you can easily schedule them.
- Change Your Blog URLs
WordPress tends to do a pretty good job creating URLs for your blog posts, but sometimes you will need to adjust them. For instance, if there is a special character that makes it difficult for search engines to read, or if your blog title is really long and contains words not optimized for search. All you have to do is go to the Edit screen, then click on “Change Permalinks,” where you can edit the title as it appears in the URL.
- WordPress Editor
WordPress editor has a number of tools you can use to speed up your workflow and eliminate misspellings and website styling issues, including:
- Spellcheck
- Remove formatting from copied text
- Shift + Return creates a line break
- Keyboard Short cuts, like Ctrl + B for bold, Ctrl + I for italic, etc.
- Embed Videos, Tweets, and Other Media
Many don’t realize that WordPress lets you easily embed content from other websites like YouTube, Twitter, Hulu, Vimeo, and Flickr. If you’re not sure if you can embed a specific site, check out the full list on the WordPress Embeds page.
- Change Blog Authors
If you have multiple people writing for your site, but you are the only publisher, you don’t have to take the time to login under a different name. Just go to the Edit screen, and click on the “Screen Options” tab. Check the box that says “Author,” and a drop-down box to choose the author of the post will appear.
If you’re looking for help writing for and managing your blog, CyberMark can help! Our experienced social media writers can write weekly or monthly blog posts depending on your specific needs. Call us today to learn more about the social media packages we offer at 623-889-3380.
What Can Blogging Do For Local SEO?
Search engine optimization for local companies is all about ongoing, consistent online promotional activities, so it only makes sense that blogging can be the perfect tool to help. The good news is, many local or small businesses haven’t hopped on the blogging bandwagon yet as an SEO tactic, so it’s still something of a secret weapon.
The majority of local businesses are putting their efforts toward highly competitive categories, such as obtaining local citations and links, finessing their Google+ Local listing, encouraging customer reviews on Yelp or other review sites, and setting up basic social media sites. Since all of these businesses are doing essentially the same things, they end up barely making any headway, resulting in little to no movement in ranking position. But, if one of those companies begins blogging consistently, that business may rapidly become top dog, gaining the advantages that many of the non-blogging companies lose out on.
What are some of the advantages of blogging for local companies?
- Google’s algorithms favor content that is consistently updated with fresh content, like blog posts.
- Well-written blog posts can attract an audience that is interested in your products or services, creating potential new customers and a following that Google’s local algorithms will take notice of.
- A blog will provide your site with a unique link profile which results is more successful SEO.
- Allows you to rank in Blog Search, resulting in greater exposure and distribution of your promotional efforts.
- Blogging provides a solid bedrock for developing your social media presence, as well as your online reputation.
Installing a blog and writing for it consistently are not necessarily shortcuts to achieving higher ranking in the short term. They can take some time to work, but should be seen as an investment in the long-term success of your company. If you do it right, it can be an incredible tool for helping you get ahead of your competitors in terms of search engine optimization and social media.
Having the help of a professional internet marketing company can make all the difference in your success with blogging and social media. At CyberMark International, we can setup and install a blog on your website and even post to it regularly to ensure it is fully optimized. For more information on the services we provide at CyberMark, contact us today.
LinkedIn Redesign Allows Companies to Feature Updates
LinkedIn is taking another step towards business-to-consumer marketing with a new design for company pages that allows them to pay to feature their updates. The site made this new feature available to select firms almost a month ago and now plans to make it available for free to more than 2 million companies with LinkedIn profiles.
This new featured update allows brands the ability to more prominently display updates they would like to highlight above the fold in their update feed. The update lets companies promote news and updates for up to 48 hours, where they are displayed front and center.
While the company pages are free, LinkedIn has a suite of paid marketing products readily available to companies as well. They sell display ads, targeted status updates, sponsorships, recommendation ads, partner messages, text based ads, analytics, and research.
LinkedIn has recently given a facelift to their company pages, giving them a look that is strikingly similar to that of Facebook and Twitter’s timeline-like page display. The new look allows for a larger image, or cover photo, intended to make the pages more visually appealing.
If you’re looking for help setting up and optimizing your social networks, call CyberMark International at 623-889-3380.
How to Avoid Getting Hacked on Twitter, Facebook and Any Other Social Media Site
If you use social media enough, every so often you might notice a post from a friend that just doesn’t look quite right. The post typically has a link at the end and a short comment meant to direct you to click on the link, saying something like, “You’ll never believe what I found,” or “You’ve gotta check this out!” These are all clear signs that this person’s account has been hacked.
As a business, one of the greatest dangers aside from the obvious security breach is the potential loss of followers or friends that you have worked so hard to grow. Getting hacked can deal a devastating blow to your social media following. For this reason, it is good to be proactive about protecting your account security. Here are five tips to avoid getting hacked:
• Use a hacker-proof password: Choose a password that isn’t easy to guess, with a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbol characters. For extra safety, try out Safepasswd, a tool that helps you create incredibly safe passwords.
• Reset your passwords often: Change your passwords once every few months. If you’re concerned that you might forget your password, tools like 1Password, KeePass, LastPass and RoboForm all offer services to help securely keep track of your passwords.
• Don’t get fooled by fake login screens: If you’re already signed into Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking site, you won’t be asked to sign in again unless you’ve logged out. Even if the screen looks like the typical login page, it may not be. If this happens, err on the side of caution and exit the browser window, then try again.
• Never respond to emails asking for information: Never respond to an email with your login information. Many of the emails sent out are formatted to look legitimate, so don’t be fooled. Check the email address to see if it has been sent from a third-party account like Gmail, MSN, Hotmail or Yahoo. When in doubt, contact the company that is asking you for information directly.
• Don’t fall victim to scammer calls: If a hacker has access to your social media account, it is likely that they already have your phone number. Never give out any password or login information, or your social security number to an unsolicited caller. If you are unsure whether the person calling you is legitimate, get their name, employee ID number and attempt to call them back through the company’s main, verified 1-800 number.
While these tips can help, there is still the possibility that your social media accounts may get hacked at some point. To ensure the least amount of damage to your online reputation and follower base, the most important thing you can do is to be as active as possible with your social media output. The more often you post and check your accounts, the sooner you will be able to see if a hacker is posting on your account.
If you’re struggling to keep an active social media presence while running a business, the social media specialists at CyberMark International can help you. For more information on the social media services we provide, call us today at 623-889-3380.
CyberMark is a 2011 BBB Business Ethics Award Winner!
We at CyberMark are very excited to announce that we are a winner of a 2011 BBB Business Ethics Award. Awarded by the Better Business Bureau of Central, Northern and Western Arizona, the BBB Business Ethics Award recognizes businesses around that state that demonstrate exceptional ethics in their business practices. After being a finalist three years in a row, we are greatly honored to be named a winner of this prestigious award.
For more information, here’s our press release about the award.
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Facebook Pages Get a Makeover
Major changes are afoot in the land of Facebook. Facebook page admins who’ve logged into their accounts recently may have noticed they now have the option to preview and/or upgrade their page to the new design, which will officially replace the old design after March 10. Here’s what you can expect from the new design:
· Top row of photos. Just like the new Facebook profiles, the new Facebook pages will feature a row of five of your most recently added or tagged photos.
· New Facebook profile picture size. Facebook profile pictures have been adjusted slightly from 200×600 to 180×540.
· No more information box. The information box, or the box located directly underneath your Facebook profile picture, will be no more after the changeover. All information box’ contents will automatically transfer over the Info section.
· Left-hand navigation. With the new design, Facebook is doing away with the tabs in favor of a left-hand menu located below the profile picture.
· From FBML to iFrames. After March 10, iFrames will replace Static FBML as the way of creating custom Facebook page tabs.
· Use Facebook as page. Page admins can view notifications and a news feed for their page, as well as “like” and comment on other Facebook pages.
· E-mail notifications. Page admins can also receive notifications of comments, likes and more in their e-mail inbox.
· New wall filters. Pages will have two wall filters visible to all Facebook users: “Posts by Page” and “Everyone.” Page admins will also be able to view “Hidden Posts” and “Most Recent” in the admin view.
· Featured pages. You can now feature pages that your page has liked in the featured pages section.
· Featured admins. You can now let Facebook users know exactly who is controlling this page.
At CyberMark, we’re pretty excited about the new Facebook page (page notifications, yay!) However, the transition from the old design to the new design will most likely call for a few adjustments. Here’s a short checklist to help make the changeover a smooth and beneficial one:
· Make sure your top photo row shows only the photos and images that put your organization in the best light. To remove photos from the photo row, simply click on them. You can also choose to leave the row blank simply by removing all of the photos.
· Check your Facebook profile picture to ensure that it still looks great in the smaller dimensions.
· With the information box automatically transferring into the Info tab, be sure to look over your Info tab to make sure there are no redundancies. Also, as Facebook has recently added several new fields to the Info tab, you might want to rearrange some information.
· Switch over your tabs created with FBML to iFrames. Although Facebook has assured us that FBML tabs will be viewable after the changeover, that’s not likely to last forever. Talk to your developer about making the transition, if you haven’t done so already.
· Find and like pages you want to associate with your organization so that they appear in the featured section of your page.
· If you want people to know who the admin of a page is, be sure to add them under featured page owners.
If you would like help adjusting your Facebook page to the new design, we would love to help. Just contact us with your questions.
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How to Build a LinkedIn Company Profile
LinkedIn is the world's largest social network of professionals.
As the world’s largest social network for professionals, LinkedIn can be a great place for professionals to build relationships with other professionals. But as helpful as LinkedIn can be for networking for the individual, LinkedIn can also be a great place for companies to launch and advance a professional identity.
With a LinkedIn company profile, you have the opportunity to increase awareness of your company’s identity among the professional set. LinkedIn users can follow your company to receive company updates such as new hires and new products and services. Also, because LinkedIn company profiles have a high PageRank, they show up prominently in search results, helping your organization gain more exposure.
If you haven’t done so already, creating a LinkedIn company profile is easy. The following is a guide to setting up a professional, effective LinkedIn company profile:
1. Add your company. To create your LinkedIn company profile, go to the Companies menu on LinkedIn. From there, choose Add a Company. You will be asked to fill out your company name and your company e-mail address. [Note: If your e-mail address is associated with another company, LinkedIn won’t let you add a company profile.]
2. Build your company profile. Follow the LinkedIn profile wizard to flesh out your profile. To give visitors the best sense of your company, add as much information as profile. Here’s the type of information you can add to your profile:
· Company Type: Is your organization a public company? Privately held? Self Owned?
· Company Size: How many employees does your company have?
· Company Website URL: Your company’s website
· Main Company Industry: Choose from a list of industries
· Company Operating Status: Operating? Operating subsidiary? Acquired?
· Year Founded: When was your company founded?
· Company Locations: Add all business locations.
· Logo: Upload your company logo. [Note: Files must be 50x50 pixels.]
· Company Description: Describe you company in a paragraph or two. Be sure to add keyword phrases.
· Company Specialties: List your company’s products and services.
· Twitter ID: Have a Twitter account? Add your Twitter ID to your LinkedIn profile to display your tweets right in your feed.
· Company Blog RSS Feed: To automatically post your company blog entries on your LinkedIn company profile, add the web address of your blog feed (i.e. http://www.companyname.com/blog/feed)
· Company News: Opt to share news published about your company on your LinkedIn profile.
3. Add products and services. Let visitors know what you have to offer by filling out a profile for each of your company’s products and services. For each product or service, you can provide the following:
· Name
· Category
· Image: Choose an image that best represents your product. For best results, make sure the image is sized to 100×80 pixels.
· Description: Describe the product or service in a few sentences, making sure to use keywords.
· List of key features: What are the key benefits/uses of your product/service?
· Disclaimer: Does this product/service come with a disclaimer?
· URL: Have a webpage or blog about this product? Add it here.
· Contacts: Who can visitors contact about this product? You can designate company employees as contacts that are listed on LinkedIn.
· Promotions: Have a special offer for this product? Include a title, description and URL where users can find out more.
· YouTube Video: Have a YouTube video that demonstrates this product or service? Add a video header and video URL to display it on the page.
4. Designate company page admins. Who from your organization do you want to be able to edit your company profile? You have the option of allowing any LinkedIn user with a valid company domain e-mail address to edit your page, but if you want to limit control of your page, opt to add designated users only.
Creating and cultivating your LinkedIn company profile will help your company connect with more people online. If you’d like assistance in creating your LinkedIn company profile, CyberMark can help. Please contact us today to consult with us about building your company’s profile on LinkedIn.
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Recommended Weekly and Monthly Computer Maintenance Schedule
Part of any successful business is keeping your equipment in good working order. For most businesses, computers are integral to day-to-day operations. Fact is, slow-running computers, computer crashes and other computer problems can take valuable time away from other pressing tasks. For best results, CyberMark recommends performing the following maintenance each week or month.
Weekly
Back up your e-mail program. Don’t lose important e-mails from clients and co-workers because of a malfunctioning e-mail program. When backing up your e-mail program, it is a good idea to also have this backup on a different drive on which your computer your e-mail is located. If you can’t back-up your e-mail on another drive, then just back it up to a CD. This way, if your computer fails, you will still have your full e-mail intact (or at least most of it).
If you use Outlook as your e-mail program, you’ll want to do the following to back up your Outlook. First, open Outlook and click on File. Then, select Import and Export and choose Export a File and click Next. Next, select Personal Folder File (.pst) and then click Next. After that, click personal file folders, check the box that says Include Subfolders, and then click Next. The program will then ask you for a location. We recommend naming a new folder on your computer something easy to remember such as Outlook Backup. After naming your back-up folder, click browse in this panel in Outlook and chose the Outlook backup folder. We suggest that you check Replace Duplicates with Items Exported. Finally, click Finish. It might take quite sometime if your outlook is too large, so you might want to do this at the end of your day. Once the back-up process starts, do not open Outlook until the back-up process is complete.
Also, if you use Outlook as a filing cabinet for important docs, have your IT professional create archives for Outlook to reduce the size of your e-mail file. In the event of a crash, smaller Outlook files are much easier to retrieve than larger Outlook files.
Monthly
Perform a disk cleanup. The disk cleanup tool on your computer helps you free up space on your hard disk for maximum computing speed. In order to perform a disk cleanup on a Windows-based PC, go to the Start button on your desktop. Click All Programs and then select Accessories from the drop-down menu. From Accessories, select System Tools and then Disk Cleanup. Select C: Drive and click OK. After the scan is completed (it will take about two to three minutes), delete all Temporary files, Recycle Bin and Temporary Internet Files.
Make sure your data files from your virus protection software are completely up-to-date. Your virus protection software is your first line of defense against debilitating computer viruses, so it’s important to ensure that it is up to snuff. Your virus protection software should be set to update itself automatically, but if you have to download the latest DAT files, be sure to run a full or complete scan of your computer. We recommend that, if you haven’t already, install both Super Anti-Spyware and Malware Bytes on your computer. For optimal protection, buy full versions of both programs.
Run a disk defragmenter On a Windows computer, the purpose of your disk defragmenter is decrease the time it takes to read and write files by rearranging files stored on your computer. (Note: you should always run this after everything else above is completed.) To run your disk defragmenter, click on the START button on your desktop. Then click All Programs and select Accessories. From Accessories, go to System Tools and choose Disk Defragmenter. (Note: you should always run this after everything else above is completed.)
Also, it is a GREAT idea to make sure all important documents on your computer are backed up at an offsite location. This way, you lose nothing if your computer crashes. We recommend that your IT professional creates an emergency plan in case of fire so that you also have a full backup of all your data off location. Believe us, you DO NOT want to wait until an emergency situation to get a plan in action.
When you depend on a computer for your livelihood, doesn’t it make sense to make sure your computer is healthy? Keep your computer in tip-top condition by keeping on a regular maintenance schedule.
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Google AdWords Adds Automated Rules
Google AdWords is currently rolling out AdWords Automated Rules, a new feature that will allow pay-per-click advertisers to manage their accounts without having to log in on a daily basis. It is currently available to only a handful of PPC advertisers but will become more widely available in the U.S. in coming weeks.
With AdWords Automated Rules, advertisers can automate changes to specified parts of their account based on criteria supplied by the user. For example, AdWords Automated Rules allows you to:
· Generate more traffic on your peak shopping days by automatically increasing your daily budget on Mondays and decreasing it on Wednesdays
· Change your Max CPC bids based on CTR or conversion rates
· Allow ads promoting a special offer late on a Sunday night when the offer goes live
The new Automated Rules are designed to save time and make effectively managing your account simpler. AdWords encourages anyone who regularly logs in to manage their account to try Automated Rules.
For help on setting up an automated rule, please visit the help center. Here is an introductory video from Google AdWords.
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