Organize Your Fans
Google+ allows you to separate your fans into circles, allowing you to provide customized and highly targeted content to specific types of people. Your audience likely has divisive opinions, wants and needs. Separate your audience into various circles so that they always get what they’re looking for.

‘Hangout’ With a Bigger Audience
With Google+ Hangouts, you can have on-camera chats with your audience, putting a live face behind your brand. Sure, Facebook has Skype, but that only allows communication between two people. With Hangouts, you can have face-to-face chats with as many people as you want, which will give your brand much more personality. Michael Dell of Dell Computers, for example, recently toyed with the idea of using Hangouts for customer service and sales purposes.

Track Who Is Sharing Your Content
With the +1 feature, you can see who shared your video, your article, blog or anything else. This allows you to see firsthand what your audience responds to and what they don’t quite respond to. You can then tailor your future content to fit your audience’s needs exactly.

Integration With Other Google Services
Google+ has made it really tempting to switch from Facebook, as your profile and notifications are all there in your Google search page. You can also share content with your audience without having to switch from the search page. If you are already using Gmail, Google Docs, Search and other Google services, you will find using Google+ to be quite handy. Plus, you can bet that Google+ will have a significant influence on search engine results now and in the near future.

Less Noise
Facebook is filled with news updates and birthday announcements and of course there is your friend Sally’s dentist appointment that she’s nervous about. Google+, on the other hand, provides relevant content without all that clutter and noise. Content is much easier to find, since the search engine functionality is built in, and then you have the fact that there are only 40 million or so Google+ users as opposed to 800+ million Facebook users. While Google+’s numbers are bound to increase, chances are Google will still work hard to provide relevant content without all the confusion.

5 Tips for Optimizing Google+ for Business

1. Compelling ‘About’ Tab
Your ‘About’ tab is what others see in the search results and during Google+ searches. Make your About tab compelling so that people will want to click on your profile to learn more.
2. Choose Main Image Carefully
Your main profile image (Or images. You can select more than one.) should be professional and easy on the eyes. After all, your image is often going to be your first impression with any new visitors to your profile.
3. Hangout With Your Audience
Put some personality and interactivity behind your brand by engaging in face-to-face Hangouts. Use your creativity and imagination and show your audience that you are nothing like your competitors.
4. Be Helpful
Instead of pushing your offers every chance you get, offer helpful tips, tricks and advice. If your audience sees you as caring and helpful, they will be more likely to stick around and come back for more. And don’t forget all the +1s you’ll get for your content.
5. Comment On Like-Minded Posts
Find others in your field and leave engaging comments. Try to get a meaningful discussion going. This will create more exposure for your brand and people will begin paying attention whenever you post.

If you don’t yet have a Google+ business page, I recommend heading over there and signing up now. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, by signing up and harnessing the power of Google, you will get a nice leg up on the competition.
Have you tried Google+ for business? Have you seen success with it? We’d love to hear your story.

FirstBank QR Codes Help Unprepared Travelers
Around October of last year, FirstBank ran with a marketing campaign at Denver International Airport that used QR codes in a rather innovative way. During the campaign, several FirstBank posters were placed throughout the airport with various QR codes printed on them along with instructions on how to scan them. When these posters were scanned, unprepared travelers with smartphones and other devices with readers were able to download free content in the form of free Sudoku puzzles, books and crosswords. As you can imagine, the campaign was a resounding success.

This is just one great idea on how you can use QR codes in your own marketing campaigns. As long as you provide quality content that your customers want, your campaigns will surely succeed. And to help you get even more out of your QR code campaigns, here are a few top tips you may find helpful.

Stick To Offline Marketing
QR codes are best used on business cards, posters, menus and other objects that people can physically touch with their hands. The QR code shouldn’t just rehash your offline content. Instead, it should provide extra, hidden content that is only for QR code users. Make your audience feel special, like they’re part of the club.

Make Them Readable
Smartphone users must be able to scan your QR codes with their phones. This means they must be large enough and clear enough for devices to read. Furthermore, you should give a thought as to where smartphone users will be scanning the QR code. For instance, if you place a poster in an elevator, are your users going to be able to have the service to scan the QR code with their smartphones?

Let Users Know Where The QR Code Leads
Let your users know what they’re getting into. This will not only entice them into scanning the code, but it will decrease the bounce rate that always comes when you try to take your audience by surprise.
Test Them Thoroughly Before Sending Them Out
Before you publish your QR codes, test them thoroughly with various devices and using several different browsers. There are many different types of smartphones out there. Don’t alienate your audience that uses a specific type or browser.

Mobile Friendly Experience
When a smartphone user scans your QR code, the landing page that user is taken to must be mobile-friendly. Don’t take your audience to your regular site. Instead, have a mobile site prepared with all unique content. This may be extra information that wouldn’t fit on your business card, it could be ‘exclusive items’ for sale or it may be a video that teaches a trick, tip or technique. But that information must be optimized for the small screen and smartphone capabilities if you hope for your audience to stick around.

QR Code Awareness Is Spreading
QR codes aren’t used by all smartphone users just yet. But the technology is growing and awareness is spreading, which means your business should get in on the ground floor now. Before you know it, QR codes will be mainstream. Don’t let your business get left behind.

Are you using QR codes in your marketing campaigns? Have you found a unique and exciting way to use them? Leave a comment and let us know.

The Wrong Landing Page
Even if you have the best ads in the world, if you send your visitors to a crappy landing page, you’ll experience a higher than normal bounce rate. Your website should have professional design and the information should be easy to find. Furthermore, make sure the ad sends your traffic to the appropriate page. Sending your ad traffic to your home page will only force them to search for what they came to see, and few people, if any, are going to take the time to do that.

Setting Too Low of an Advertising Budget
It is wise to try and save money when you are just starting out with PPC marketing, but starving your PPC budget will only cause your ads to show up intermittently. Your customers may need to see your ads a few times before they choose to click-through and buy. Make sure your ads are showing up when your searchers do, and you can do this by setting an appropriate budget that always shows your ads at the appropriate times.

Bidding Too High Or Too Low
When bidding on keywords, if you go too high you may end up getting into a bidding war with other PPC advertisers. And if you go too low, your ads may not show up on the first page of the search results. Experts recommend bidding enough to achieve positions four through seven. Then, you can optimize to try and reach the top spots. This will help you keep your cost-per-clicks down while improving your conversion rates at the same time.

Trying to Predict Search Behavior
Some PPC advertisers think they know when and how their searchers operate. Instead of trying to predict this behavior, consult your PPC account reports. By analyzing this data, you will get a better idea of when and how your ads should be displayed. It is always best to have your ads running as much as possible so that you can get an accurate assessment of when traffic peaks and when people are ready to buy.

Pay-per-click marketing puts your ads in front of the people who are looking for those ads. But it is easy to become overwhelmed. By keeping away from the above mistakes, you will experience better click-through rates and higher conversions for your advertising dollar.
Do you have any PPC tips you’d like to share, or mistakes you think advertisers should stay away from? Let us know in the comments below.

• Out of the world’s 4 billion mobile phones in use, 1.08 billion are smartphones
• Smartphones comprise 27% of all mobile phone use
• 3 billion mobile phones are SMS enabled
• 86% of mobile web users are watching TV while using a mobile phone
• 1/3 of all mobile phone users access Facebook from a mobile device
• 91% of all mobile internet is social related
• By 2014, mobile web should overtake desktop internet usage

Looking at these numbers, one thing is clear. Mobile web is here to stay and SEO professionals can no longer afford to ignore this fast-growing audience. Let’s just take a look at a few of the ways mobile web marketing is changing SEO forever.

Image Searches: There are several mobile apps that allow mobile users to search the web using images they take on their phone or even with photos taken that instant. For example, if you are looking for a particular gift for a loved one and you see it at the store, only it’s too expensive, you can take a picture with your phone and you can instantly find that item somewhere else close by for less. Are your site’s images optimized for this form of search?

Type-Searching: Desktop users take no time at all to type out a long keyword phrase. But try doing that on a standard mobile type-pad. Instead, mobile users are starting to search for shorter keyword strings. This means that mobile users are relying far more on predictive text or on search engine suggestions. How will this affect the way you optimize your site and go about link building in the future?

Going Social: SEO is all about sociability these days. If you want to connect to your audience and remain relevant, mobile web is where it’s at.

Geo-Targeting: Many phones come with GPS technology these days and many apps are using the user’s location to enhance the phone’s functionality. Google, for example, often gives you local search results first before any others. But with mobile phones being used in multiple locations, search results are likely to fluctuate more on mobile devices than on any other. If your website’s local search page isn’t optimized or complete, you may want to put this at the top of your list of things to do.

The Immediacy: It is said that 70% of mobile hotel bookings were for same day check-ins. And 38% of mobile flight bookings were for trips departing within 10 days. Knowing this, will you consider changing the offers or content you show to your site’s mobile visitors?

You can expect mobile web use to continue to expand as new technologies emerge to make things simpler, faster and more accessible for users than ever. What do you think of this current trend? Have you altered your SEO efforts because of the mobile web phenomenon?

Of course, you will need to actually go above and beyond so that you don’t get any bad reviews or comments in the process. However, if you offer quality services and great customer service and you are anxious to start receiving all the positivity you can get, here are five tips to help you encourage your customers to make their voices heard.

Link Review/Comment Profiles On Your Site
Many businesses are now leaving links to Yelp and other review/comment-oriented platforms on their websites. By providing links to these sites, you can control the review process. And you can also encourage your site visitors to leave reviews and comments merely by asking. You can further make incentives for the review process by suggesting that you will put select reviews/comments on your website.

Don’t Ask for Positive Reviews
While it is ok to ask your website viewers to leave a review or comment, you shouldn’t ask for positive ones. It may backfire on you. Just encourage reviews and comments period and let your customers decide how well you are doing. As long as you are providing quality and great customer service, you should do fine.

Follow Up With Customers After the Sale
It is always a good idea to contact your customers right after the sale is complete. This way, you can correct any problems the customer might have before you get any bad reviews. Then, once the customer is satisfied, you can ask for a review that will surely be positive.

Make It Easy to Complain
If you put a complaint form on your site and you respond to complaints quickly, your miffed customers will be less likely to leave a bad review/comment. If you do get a complaint, don’t be defensive and don’t be rude. Just take care of the problem and focus on creating a satisfied customer. If you go the extra distance to make sure the customer is happy, that person will be more likely to leave a glowing review about your business.

What If You Do Get a Negative Review or Comment?
If someone decides to really lay into your business online, don’t panic. Never let your emotions get the best of you. Instead, respond to the review or comment in a positive way. Focus on contacting that customer and resolving the issue. If the review is anonymous, fix the issue if possible, especially if it has to do with the way you do business. Some reviews are based on nonsense and lots of people like to be ugly when the internet affords them anonymity. Don’t feed the trolls. But do work on satisfying everyone you do business with. When it comes to reviews and comments, remember: if you are good to your customers, they will be good to you.

1. Not Being Passionate
If you are bored of interacting with your customers on Facebook and Twitter, or if you’re just plain uninterested and you feel it’s a waste of time, it’s going to reflect in every post you make. And don’t try to overcompensate with exclamation points or emoticons. Your customers are incredibly savvy today. Don’t insult their intelligence, but do be passionate about everything you post. Be curious, ask questions and show some excitement about the business you’re in.

2. Posting Post-Haste
Even though you may be pressed for time, take a minute to look over your post or Tweet before you publish. Making a grammar, spelling or tact error can cost you respect in some cases and it could lose customers. At the very least, you’ll look unprofessional. Just because your posts and Tweets aren’t going into solid print, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful about what you say and how you say it.

3. Not Capturing Email Addresses
If you have yet to set an email marketing campaign into motion, you may be leaving money on the virtual table. When you get a list of email addresses, you encourage loyalty and repeat business. Make sure you send out a welcome message to your new subscribers thanking them for signing up. Make them feel special and offer them unique content not found elsewhere. And follow those up with emails that provide value in the way of offers, specials and plenty of news, updates, tips and tricks that relate to your industry.

4. Not Using ‘Like’ and ‘+1′ Buttons
Social buttons like Facebook’s Like and Google’s +1 let the search engines know that your webpage is hot and that it offers some type of value. Furthermore, when you use these buttons, your visitors are able to see firsthand that others approve of your content. This can create a bandwagon effect that can bring far more business your way. Plus, with the Facebook Like button, people will be able to see all of your fans and their faces, which goes a long way towards building trust in your brand.
Stay away from these top social marketing mistakes and you’ll remain ahead of the curve as we head into 2012.

Do you have any social media tips or tricks you’d like to share? Maybe something that you’ve noticed has changed as we head into 2012? We’d love to hear from you.

• Designed a site that tied together products, applications and resources for an intuitive and informative user experience
• Google Adwords Pay-Per-Click: Cost Per Click down 23% while simultaneously raising Click Through Rate 1900% (nope, not a typo)
• Content management system that allows them to efficiently maintain their sizable product catalog and resources database
• 31 keywords in the top 30 of Google and rising
• Creating custom post types specific for their needs, along with “post-to-post” capabilities

Simple Navigation: Your mobile website design should only have a few navigation buttons and they should be easy to click even with a small screen. With touch screen phones, it is really annoying when you have to zoom in because your big finger hits two navigation buttons at once. Keep this in mind and make sure they are spaced far enough apart to avoid frustrating users. Also, if your mobile site is making use of drop down menus, drop them. They don’t work so well on smartphones.

Limit Your Images and Graphics: If your site is loaded with images, it can take a long time for your page to load, especially on a smartphone. Just keep to one or two images to keep things simple and fast.

Say No To Flash: Adobe just killed flash for the mobile device, finally. Don’t do it. Flash on the average mobile phone just leaves a big empty space on the screen.

Prominent Contact Information: Your business’s phone number and/or contact information should be at the very top or very bottom of your mobile site and easy to read.

Keep It Simple: When it comes to copy, videos, images, everything, just keep it simple. Give users what they came for and nothing more. They will appreciate the simplicity.

With these five tips, your customers will easily find you no matter where they are. They will be able to find your location and they will be able to navigate from the home page to the very depths of your mobile site quickly and easily with any sized device.

Does Your Website Have a Mobile Version?

If your website doesn’t have a mobile version, you may be missing out on a prime opportunity to capture more business. How many times have customers tried to access your website from their smartphones only to give up after the navigation doesn’t work so well? And how many of those customers have switched to your competitors because they did in fact have a mobile site? Your customers may be searching for you right now on their Androids, iPhones and iPads. Can they find you? Ask our Denver mobile web design team if a mobile website is the perfect fit for your business.
Does your company use a mobile website? We would love to hear some of your successes or anything else you’d like to add. Let us know in the comments section below.

Ask Questions: Don’t just post messages promoting your brand. Instead, ask questions of your audience and engage your prospects and customers. Get a dialogue going and you will see better results.

People, Not Robots: It is tempting to want to use services that blast your Tweets and Facebook posts for you, but don’t do it. Your customers will only brand you a spammer and oftentimes automated content won’t even make it into your friends’ and followers’ news feeds.

Ask for Testimonials and Feedback: Facebook, Twitter and Google+ can all be used to gather more positive support for your brand. By asking for testimonials and feedback, you are essentially letting your customers do your marketing for you.

Switch It Up: Don’t be so predictable. When it comes to marketing your products and services, use videos, informational articles and blogs, videos, photos, webinars and anything else you can think of. Think outside the box, utilize many different platforms to share your message and that message will surely spread.

Be Nice to Negative People: In today’s social climate, you are undoubtedly going to face some negative people. You could get a negative comment, some negative feedback or you could face an incredibly rude person. In these cases, don’t be rude back and don’t try to argue. Instead, listen to the person, be nice and, most of all, be sincere.

Keep Your Profiles Fresh: When was the last time you updated your Facebook page or your Twitter profile page? What about your website? You should constantly update your online presence with helpful information that your audience can use. Are you being asked pretty much the same questions from customers? Put the answers to these questions on your website and profile pages and kill two birds with one stone. Your customers will get quality information they can use and your marketing materials will remain fresh and relevant.

Take It Easy: When it comes to posting blogs, making Facebook posts or Tweeting, just do one or two a day or every other day. If you send thirteen posts an hour on Facebook and double that on Twitter, you may find yourself ignored, blocked or banned completely. Instead, focus on quality posts and encourage feedback. How can you respond to prospects and customers if you are speed posting all day?

Use these seven tips to supercharge your marketing efforts. You’ll notice that many of these tips pertain to social marketing. It is no surprise. The online world has become more social than ever and pretty soon online marketing and social marketing may be indistinguishable.
Do you have any marketing tips of your own you’d like to share?

According to recent reports, StumbleUpon:

• Sends more traffic to US websites than top social network Facebook
• Has had an 118% increase in active users since 2009
• Ranks #1 among U.S. social media traffic sources
• Ranks #2 globally, right behind Facebook

Those numbers right there should be more than reason enough to use StumbleUpon for your business. But what exactly is the platform and what can it do for your business and your bottom line?

What Is StumbleUpon?
The social network StumbleUpon has been dubbed a discovery engine that finds and recommends online content for its users. Users can then discover and ‘rate’ web pages, photos, videos and other content according to their tastes and interests. The higher content gets rated, the more likely it is to be read/viewed and passed around.

Why It’s Good For Business
When you use StumbleUpon to find content, your interests are taken into account so that the platform can recommend like-minded content in the future. Your peers’ interests are also taken into account. And because the platform is able to accurately deliver content that you may enjoy, you’re more likely to stay on the site, reading/viewing and rating content.

Helps With SEO
As users read and view and share your business’s content, your social score will improve within the search engines. You’ll get more links to your website and a larger audience overall. This means more traffic and potentially more sales and loyal customers.

High-Quality Content
For StumbleUpon to work, however, you must continue to feed it fresh and engaging content. Otherwise, it won’t rate very well and your efforts to expand on StumbleUpon won’t go very far at all. But if you can produce content that gets results, your brand will begin to grow on the social platform. You can also find other content on the site (created by others) that your audience may find interesting.

There are other social networks out there, but StumbleUpon is certainly growing and it’s a great fit for the content-based SEO that seems very popular with Google and the other engines these days. So if you’re not a StumbleUpon user, we recommend ‘Stumbling’ in to check it out. It’s fun to use once you get the hang of it, it’s free to use (a big plus) and it’s perfect for gaining tons of new exposure. Just make sure you use the site wisely. Only submit content that is worth submitting and make sure it’s always focused on the users and what they’re looking for. If you can do that, you have the potential to gain the attention of an entirely new and massive audience.