I recently received a couple of emails from a business directory that submissions I had made on behalf of some clients had been accepted. As part of my SEO services I often supply my clients with directory submissions, focusing on those directories that have proven to be beneficial. What was unusual about this particular submission was that I had made them in 1998. The one client for which I had made these submissions was a nursing school that was no longer in business.
This example demonstrates one of the major pitfalls of directory submission. This particular directory wasn’t anything special, such as the DMOZ. Yet, like many directories it had two processes for submission, paid and free. And since I had chosen free my listing was put on the back burner.
If you’re looking to generate links to your site and think submitting to directories will be an easy fix, think again. While there are some benefits to directory submission, there are also some drawbacks. Here are 5 things to consider when submitting to directories.
- Most directories don’t matter. There are probably thousands of online directories out there, and for the majority, the only visitors they get are people looking to make submissions. The search engines index them, but give them almost no notice. One way to determine if it’s worth submitting to is if it has any PageRank, the value Google gives to webpages. Also look at its format and see if its user friendly. Is it just a list of links or does it have an actual format.
- Popular directories take time for listings to appear. The Holy Grail of directories is the DMOZ directory, also known as the Open Directory. It’s usually the first directory that SEO agencies apply to, as listing in this directory used to dramatically influence the search engines. The problem was that it was maintained by volunteers and the sheer number of submissions overwhelmed them. Getting listed in the DMOZ could take months and more likely years. Because of this the DMOZ has lost much of its luster.
- Paying for directories is a bad idea. Usually. The primary reason for most directories is that its owner hopes to make money from them. Google for one has come out saying it discounts most paid directories. The few that are approved by them that do charge a fee only get a pass because they review all submissions and don’t guarantee a listing. Paying for most directory listings isn’t just a waste of money; it could be a red flag for the search engines.
- Some directories are incestuous. Getting a number of links from the same IP address could be another red flag for the search engines. And many of those webmasters who are selling submissions to their directory, found that to be profitable, they had to have a number of directories. So although you think your submitting to a variety of directories, they’re actually related to one another.
- Some directories do matter. For all the problems with directories there are a number of quality ones out there. Ironically many of these don’t even look that professional. What they are is niche directories put together by people who are interested in a particular subject. I’ve submitted my clients sites to directories put together by airline enthusiasts or other hobbyist who are looking to compile a list of worthwhile sites related to their hobby.
Links are an important part of search engine optimization, but directory submission should be just a small part of this. The best way to generate links is to develop a site that people find of interest and link to on their own. If you want to develop a site that people respond to and link to, consider using my content marketing services.
Their names seem cute and cuddly but to many websites they’ve been deadly. They are the Panda Update and now the Penguin Update and they refer to major changes in Google’s algorithm. Their targets are sites that have been engaging in questionable SEO tactics. If your site has suddenly dropped in the rankings it could be due to the Penguin update, which went into action this past week.
The Panda Update was designed to reduce the rankings of sites that had a high percentage of advertising, as well as those sites who only function was to rank for highly targeted phrases, but which didn’t have relevant content.
Panda was first rolled out in February of 2011 and has had variations of it rolled out ever since. Google has always maintained that its desire was to show the best results in its searches and this was a major step in that direction. What many suggested as a response was to do what Google wanted, to develop content that was relevant to what people were looking for. The focus should be on quality, not quantity.
With the Penguin update the target was sites that were using tactics that had long been considered black hat SEO. It was in response to sites that were guilty of over optimization. This is how Google itself described this update.
“In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s quality guidelines. This algorithm represents another step in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.”
Keyword stuffing is one of the main tactics being discouraged. This is the tactic of placing specific keywords throughout a page, even if it doesn’t always make sense. When developing content for a site you need to target specific keywords in order to reach those prospects using them. Yet, the copy that is developed should be focusing on the needs of those visitors and not concerned with how many times a phrase can be worked into it. One of the best pieces of advice for this came from Matt Cutts, one of the main spokespersons for Google. If you read your copy and it doesn’t sound natural then your likely to be guilty of keyword stuffing
Links are a crucial element of Google’s algorithm, but like many things they’ve been abused. Links that were purchased or that are from a link farm should be avoided. Links from sites that are suspect in nature should be avoided.
Another tactic that can get a site into trouble is content scraping. Instead of generating their own site, a site will just copy and paste content from another site with just a few alterations.
Whether a company did these things knowingly or were done by their search engine company without their knowledge, it could have devastating impacts. This is why you should assess your site immediately and if you find you’re site has employed anything that could be construed as being black hat, then correct it immediately.
Some legitimate sites were effected by the Penguin update and Google seemed to recognize this pretty early. They even offered a form that companies could fill out if they thought they shouldn't have been penalized. Before filling it out, however, examine your site for the issues I discussed and make sure you wern't in fact in violation of their guidelines.
If you’re working with a legitimate seo Consultant or search marketing firm, you’re likely to have nothing to worry about. If you have concerns about what has been done with your site, then contact me today for a free assessment.
With companies turning to content marketing as a means to generate traffic to their site they focus almost exclusively on it as an advertising tool. What they fail to understand is that content can be utilized in number of ways for a business and that these other ways can significantly impact revenue as well.
When doing a content audit of your site don’t just focus on pages that could be transformed into landing pages. Also look at the most visited pages, as often these are being accesses not just by prospects, but current customers, as well. Check to make sure these pages have what they’re looking for. As an example, let’s examine how an engineering firm can use content in a number of ways.
The engineering firm has done some SEO on their site focusing on terms related to the communities they serve and the services they offer. This is the first step in getting traffic to their site. Unless they develop other content, however, this traffic might not be of much value. There had better be some strong testimonials and a portfolio of engineering projects they’ve done.
A good way to do this is to think about how you’d do a sales pitch in someone’s office. Anything you would use to sell your services or your experience should also be on your site and in a manner that is easy to find. If you have a sales staff, talk to them about what prospects talk about on the phone. If there are common questions or concerns prospects have, then attempt to answer them on your site. This will free up your sales staff to close deals, not occupy themselves by answering a number of questions.
Also many businesses list their services on a single page. Even for businesses who’ve worked with you in the past, they might not always be aware of all the services you provide. Don’t be satisfied to just list these services, but think about devoting a page to each. For an engineering firm, it could the type of projects they do, as well as additional services such as feasibility studies or consulting services.
Another overlooked page is the career page. Instead of spending a lot of money to advertise on job sites, a little time spent optimizing the page could generate prospects. For the engineering firm, they list the jobs they have on their site so that when potential candidates do a search for positions in the area their site will come up. To generate the best possible leads the engineering site lists their benefits and what working at the firm is like. This gives their human resource department a higher number of qualified candidates.
What about prospective students looking for internships? For the engineering firm, this means explaining the advantage of interning at their company.
Content is more than just about marketing. It is also about branding, engaging, informing, and educating. Consider every page as a potential place to land a prospect or to further convince them that your the company for them. It could be everything from the about us page to the privacy page, to the newsletters produced each month.
By adding more content to your site your making the experience better for your visitors your lowering the costs involved with your staff and your adding value overall to your site.
If you’re not sure about how to properly utilize content for your own business, then request a free consultation with me today.
Traditional advertising is dead. Or at the very least it’s on life support. The market that adverisers target has splintered into a hundred different mediums.
In the 1950’s you could reach 80% of the population simply by advertising on the three main networks. Today ABC, CBS, and NBC together only reach a fraction of that. Imagine today if you wanted to reach 80% of the population. You would have to advertise on the four major networks, plus ESPN, Lifetime, CNN, USA, AMC, and even then you wouldn’t be close to that number.
And the way people watch television has changed. People used to gather around the television set as it was their main source of entertainment at home. Most families had just one set, so the family as a whole watch shows together. When does that happen anymore? Most families have numerous TV and each family member has their own viewing habits. Most aren’t even focused on the TV. They are watching a show, but they’re also updating their Facebook status, reading emails, or playing Farmville.
Newspaper has also lost its values. Subscriptions are down dramatically and the number of newspapers across the country is about half of what it used to be. In the past papers were delivered in the afternoon and people would sit down to read them as this was their main source of news. Today, we get the paper in the morning and read it over breakfast or on the commute to work. We skim the paper and then discard it. When a major new story happens there are no special editions. People simply turn into CNN or go online to find out the latest information.
Radio and billboard are still a way to reach people, but they are limiting. People must not only drive by your billboard, but they must have an active interest in what you’re offering. If you’re a Realtor, then just a small portion of those driving by are even likely in need of one. Likewise an insurance ad is only likely to resonate if their policy is due for renewal. Radio does a little better in that it can be timed to certain times of the day. Thus the majority of ads seem to be car related or food services.
Telemarketing used to disrupt our lives as you easily count on getting half dozen phone calls a night. Usually it seemed when everyone is about to sit down to eat. Luckily federal regulations put an end to the majority of this. And even then how effective was this form of advertising.
Now all of this isn’t new to many people in the internet marketing industry. In fact, if they’re reading this they’d likely scoff and say that this is old news. Entire books have been written about the subject. And yet, people in the business world still don’t seem to have received the message. The majority of their dollars is still tied into traditional advertising.
One only has to look at your local auto dealers and real state agencies. Even though searches for cars and homes are often two of the main searches in every community they still invest heavily in newspaper ads and billboards. Just imagine how many people they’d reach with that 10,000 they spend each month on a single billboard.
If you’re advertising dollars are limited, then look closely at how you’re using them. Almost every industry is better of focusing on the Internet instead of any other medium. After all you can connect with people actively looking for products and services in your area. These can be people passing outside your building or people thousands of miles away looking to travel to your area. If you’re tired of having glossy ads no one is responding to, then contact me to develop an online marketing strategy.
In Why You Should Use Display Ads, I wrote about why running an ad on Google Display campaign could benefit a business, provided it’s done right. Now I’d like to focus on how to get the most value from it.
Part of the problem with display ads isn’t just that they have a reputation for not delivering, it’s that setting them up requires more work. With the search ads you simply type in what you want your ad to say, create a list of keywords and boom you’re ready to go. With display you have to decide how you want them to run and while you can do a text ad this type of ad will only reach part of your potential market.
Google itself seems to realize they’ve done little to differentiate the two. So in a couple weeks they’re going to roll out a new interface specifically designed for display campaigns. This will make it easier to set up your ad, as well as how to target your campaigns. One of the nice new features of the new interface is that you’ll actually see a graphic showing the reach of your ad. As you test various factors with your ads (keywords, placements, topics, etc.) you see a shaded area showing your reach. Add more information and this shaded area will grow.
There are literally dozens of variations on not just how your ad appears, but also in what format. Here are 5 ways to get the most out of your display campaign.
Create Display Ads
While you can run text ads in display, doing this alone limits where your ad appears. Many sites only allow display ads to appear on their page. Display ad builder allows you to create your ads using templates provided by Google. There are a couple advantages to this. First you can create your ads in a matter of minutes and second, you don’t need to be a graphic designer to accomplish it.
What I’ve found is that by using the display builder, the ads are usually approved pretty quickly. Ads I’ve designed myself or have been created by a graphic designer can sometimes take days to get approved. If you’re looking to get a campaign going immediately then use the display builder and then upload your designs so they begin the approval process. Once they are approved pause the other ads.
Once you’ve picked out a design and typed in your information you can preview it. I’ve very rarely seen an ad look good in all the different formats. I simply uncheck the designs that have issues such as text being cut off and then save my ad. I’ll then try a different ad or different text to create ads for the other formats. There are six sizes to choose from and I’ve found some sizes work better. Instead of creating graphics for every size I first see which has the most traffic or success and develop these graphics first.
Try Video to Market Your Business
Most people don’t realize that YouTube is the number 2 search engine in the US. It has a much larger reach than Bing and Yahoo, yet advertisers seldom use its potential. It’s part of the Google family and if your audience is utilizing that format you should take advantage of it. The problem is that for this you need to have a video, not something every business has the budget to do. If you’ve created an for television, however, it might work for this format.
Video is a great way to brand your business and set yourself above the competition. Watch this video on how Animal Planet took advantage of the opportunities of video.
Develop Your Brand Online
Video isn’t just the only way to develop your brand online. Simply showing up in the search results for words people are targeting or on articles related to what you do is also key to spreading the word about your business. In fact, if branding is your main concern for your campaign then consider doing cost per impression.
With cost per impression your ads will appear up to 1,000 times for a set amount. So if you set it at $4.00 you will be charged every time 1,000 people have been exposed to your ad, whether they click on it or not. So if you simply want your logo or images to appear all over the web and aren’t really interested in making sales from it, then go with cost per impressions. Be cautious with setting your CPM, however, as it might not take long for those one thousand impressions to take place. Initially set your bid a little low to see how much response you get. And as with any campaign you’re doing set a daily spend so you don’t wake up to a huge Adwords bill.
Avoid Certain Words or Certain Neighborhoods
The default setting for display campaign is usually All Available Sites. This means your ads will appear throughout the web on pages that Google finds to be related to your keywords. There is a benefit to this as you will see a lot more impressions and potentially a lot more clicks. You could also find, however, that the people clicking on your ads aren’t really interested in what you offer.
With managed placement you can determine which sites your ads appear on. This is a great tool if you’re targeting a very specific market. Suppose you want to target Realtors and so one of the phrases you’d likely be using would be real estate. So instead put real estate into the placement tool and you’ll receive a list of YouTube videos and sites related to home selling. Looking through the list you can determine where your market is likely to be visiting and choose those sites.
What is also nice about the placement tool is that it provides a little graphic for each listing showing what types of ads the site allows. Not only does it show which allow for display ads, if you run your mouse over them, it will reveal the specific type of ads they run.
At the campaign level you can exclude specific sites or specific categories. For example if you’re a Realtor you don’t want your ad appearing for crimes in your community or for stories related to death and tragedy. You can exclude these topics.
Keep Your Costs Down
Maybe I’m conservative when it comes to money, but when I set up an Adwords account for a client I tend to error on the side of caution. I purposely keep my cost per clicks or cost per impression down until I’ve seen how much of a response we get. What I’ve seen with a lot of clients experiencing very little return on investment with their campaigns is that they’ve accepted the default seting and are running their campaigns on both search and display. Then their budge is eaten up pretty quickly because most of their clicks have been on the display network.
Maybe I’m conservative when it comes to money, but when I set up an Adwords account for a client I tend to error on the side of caution. I purposely keep my cost per clicks or cost per impression down until I’ve seen how much of a response we get. What I’ve seen with a lot of clients experiencing very little return on investment with their campaigns is that they’ve accepted the default seting and are running their campaigns on both search and display. Then their budge is eaten up pretty quickly because most of their clicks have been on the display network.
Keeping down costs begins with running two campaigns, one specifically for content and another for display. Then set the cost much lower for display, particularly as you test it out. I also monitor the analytics to see which phrases seem to do better. If I find Portland Airport Shuttle converts better than Portland Airport transportation, I’ll raise the bid higher. If I find certain sites do better for my display ads, I try to focus on them. The advantage of pay per click is that you can start almost immediately with a campaign. The disadvantage is that you can also spend your money right away. If you find yourself needing help with pay per click management, then consider bringing in a professional. They will cost you money in the beginning, but in the long run will help you to lower your costs, increase your Quality Score and increase your return on investment.
The Google Display program has always been the ugly stepsister to the Google Search program. Most people seem to be either unfamiliar with it or if they do, believe it’s of no value. Yet, done properly it can be a way to generate more business for your company at a lower overall cost.
People new to Adwords often don’t realize they are using the Display network. They sign up to their account, pick out some keywords and start their campaign. Then after it’s been up a while they realize that I’m getting a lot of clicks, but not really seeing anything out of it. Then they become frustrated or turn off the campaign or hopefully realize their mistake and adjust their campaign. The knee jerk reaction is to shut off display, which is why there are so many searches on how to shut off the display setting. A better option is to simply lower the cost per click for the display network. The best option, however, is to create a campaign specifically designed for display.
The display setting is called the content network by some. Ads are run on millions of sites and Google tries to align the content of these sites with ads related to them. If you’re an amateur cook you might see ads related to cooking on AOL, YouTube, the Food Network or the site of your local news channel. It could appear on a cooking forum or a blog done by your favorite chef. This means a display ad could be exposed to thousands of people or just a handful.
Why even pay attention the display network? For one, it involves so much of what people are doing online. The one stat often mentioned is that only 5 percent of page views are of content people found using search. The rest of the time they are on social media sites, 
participating in forums, or reading periodicals. With display you can reach many of these people. Unfortunately, why they are reading an article may be hard to discern. If they are on Google searching for microwave ovens, it’s likely they are looking to buy one. If they’re reading an article on microwave ovens, however, it could be they are looking for recipes or how to repair them. Or they’re searching for reviews in anticipation of buying one. For this reason its best to go with a lower cost per click. A good number don’t know what they want and while they may click on your ad, they could be a way off from buying.
Target your display ads
If you’re currently running an Adwords campaign with most of the keywords you’re targeting, disable the display settings. Then just create a second campaign with the same words, but with only the display setting marked. An easy way to do this is through Google Adwords Editor. You can duplicate your current campaign, rename it, and then change the setting from search to display.
With the new campaign consider adding more keywords. While in search its best to go with longer tail keywords to focus on intent, with display you can go with more general words. With search if you target a one word phrase like widget, you’ll blow through your money pretty quickly with clicks that are of little value. With display you can do this to reach a larger audience.
With display you can target your audience through your settings. For example you can target specific types of magazines or even target specific periodicals such as the New York Times. Another valuable setting is targeting audience members with specific interests. Google has more than 1,000 different interest categories, from auto enthusiasts to travel enthusiasts. If you’re in the travel industry, wouldn’t it make sense to target those interested in travel.
While it is currently possible to target by demographic on certain sites, this option is ending March 21. This means you can no longer target specific age groups. This may change in the future, particularly as they develop more information on visitors through Google+. You still have the option of targeting specific locations or running ads during certain periods of the day. This means you could target readers of a specific newspaper, living in a specific location and during a specific time of the day and who are only interested in automobiles.
With display you want to set a much lower cost per click as your likely to see a lot more clicks. Yet, in the long run it could be more cost effective. Think of it this way. If you’re currently bidding 5 dollars a click on the content network and get approximately one client for every 50 clicks your spending 250 dollars per conversion. If you’re running a display campaign with words set at 5 cents, but seeing only 1 client for every 1,000 your overall cost per conversion is just 50 dollars. Granted both of these examples may seem a little too good to be true, you can still see the potential.
In the next half of this article I’ll focus on 5 ways to get the most out of a display campaign.
What is search marketing? It's a question a lot of people are still asking. More importantly, the answer to this question is constantly evolving. All people really know for sure is that they need to be found online and that somehow this term search marketing relates to it.
A couple days ago I restarted an old campaign on Bing, not taking the time to look at all the keywords I targeted. With most of my campaigns on Bing I know I can set a daily amount and not worry about it coming close to its limit. What I didn't realize is that one of the phrases I had put in this campaign was "what is search marketing." Even though the campaign had run only a few hours overnight, it had reached its limit for not just the day it started, but by this morning it was reached for the second day.
The problem is that the term search marketing isn't even agreed upon by people in the industry. Some call think it’s primarily pay per click while others consider it to be SEO and pay per click. Still others, like me, consider it anything that people can use on the internet to reach prospects. This could be your site, or it could be a Facebook page or even a listing in a local directory. It could even be an image, a pdf, or a video.
If your typing in what is search marketing, chances are you know that you need to generate prospects online. After all they aren't using the phone book anymore and many of your prospects aren't seeing your ad in the newspaper.
It doesn't matter what your business is there are people looking for your products or services. The first step is than to find the words they are using to looking for what you offer. Keyword research is crucial to not just SEO, but also pay per click.
Keyword research, SEO, developing content for your site and social media, all take time to do. This is why it’s often best to bring in a professional or firm. They can put you on the right path and explain to you how your search marketing campaign will work. And also explain to you that this campaign will evolve through the years.
The answer I would have given to what is search marketing ten years ago is vastly different from what it is today. And most likely my answer ten years from now will be completely different as well. Ten years ago I wouldn't have even discussed mobile phones, but now it’s one of the more important tools available to many businesses. In ten years we might have little use for computers.
Your web site is often the first experience a person has with your business and you want to create a first impression. Numerous studies show that if people have a bad experience on a site, they not only leave it right away, the often never return. So even if you fix a problem they might have encountered it might not help get back lost prospects.
Two recent experiences I had with two major brands offers a case in point in how to make a user experience. I’m not one to shop much so when I go somewhere I like to get in an out. Often my destination is Target because I know where things are, I know they are often cheaper, and the staff is friendly and efficient.
Recently my local Target began undergoing some major renovations. Things were moved around while the work was being done and suddenly I couldn’t find things I wanted. There was plenty of staff to ask, but often I found I was at the opposite end of where I wanted to be.
The employees at Target must have been aware that they were inconveniencing their customers. Today when I went in they had a map at the entrance, showing where each department was. It made it a lot easier for me to find things. A quick glance at their map and I could find where I needed to go.
This is the approach businesses need to take with their websites. If you want people to find out something on your site, make it easy to find. Hopefully you won’t need to draw a map, although a sitemap is always a good idea. Instead look at your site and assess whether is person wanted more information on a service, needed contact information, or wanted to learn your companies experience, it should be easy to find. Too many sites, including major brands, bury information on their site, such as contact information.
Site architecture is crucial to creating an effective web site. If people can’t find the answers their looking for, they won’t go on. They’ll simply go to another site. This has happened to me not just on small sites, but major brands, as well.
Burger King was advertising a promotion they had on their chicken sandwiches. The Italian chicken looked good so I went to their site to find out what was on it. I typed in BurgerKing.com, but was taken to their international page. I had to click a couple times to get to the United States page.
On the home page was a big graphic for the promotion. When clicking it, however, it didn’t go to information on the promotion or the sandwich. It went to a page where I could look for local restaurants. Even putting in the information didn’t take me to a page on the sandwiches.
At the top of the Burger King site seemed to be a navigation bar, but clicking on this didn’t help. After trying a couple things I realized I needed to move the button side to side to get the page to change. Even then the chicken sandwiches weren’t there. I finally clicked on a graphic for hamburgers and this took me to a menu page, where I finally found what I was looking for.
Most people aren’t going to this much trouble to find something. Try to anticipate whatever questions about your business or product prospects might have and put the information in an easy place to find. Don’t get creative here. You’re not winning customers through your design, but what you offer.
It’s been one year since Google announced the Farmer Update or the Panda update as it’s more known as. It made a lot of news at the time for the impact it had on many well-known sites. The goal of the update was designed to take away the value of sites that had content of little or no value. The days of loading up a page with a lot of content stuffed with specific keywords was hopefully at an end.
A change in the algorithm that Google uses to rank sites is nothing new. They admit to making 200 changes to its algorithm every year. Most are subtle, but the Panda update was anything but. And it’s been updated numerous times since.
Among the sites that were impacted were About.com and eHow. These sites often focused on the how to market and while some of their content was of substance, there was just as much that wasn’t like how to boil an egg. Other sites that were more significantly impacted were HubPages and Suite 101, web sites that allowed anyone to post content without having to prove they developed it. The last group was sites that article directories that allowed anyone to post articles, again without proving there were original or even of value.
It wasn’t just poor content that the update targeted. It also went after sites that scraped their content from other sites. Scraping is when someone simply copies content from another site and puts it on their own as if it’s their own creation. It’s a fast way to add a lot of content to a site and there were many occasions when the plagiarized content outranked the original.
If the Panda update received a lot of attention, a lot of sites were not impacted by it in the slightest. Not one of my clients was affected and in fact, many saw a bump in rankings. The reason is that I help them to develop content for their site that does have value. From the beginning Google said its objective was to have the sites that had the most value show up higher in the rankings. So look at your content and consider if it’s of value to your visitors. After all, your objective shouldn’t be to generate a lot of traffic to your site, but to generate a lot of revenue or that your visitors take some sort of action (i.e. Sign up for your newsletter).
One way to determine if your visitors are responding to your content, even if they don’t’ take an action is to take a look at your bounce rate. If you’re getting a lot of visitors to your site and they are leaving immediately and or not going to other pages, then it could be a sign of a problem.
There have been changes to the Panda update nearly every month since and it’s likely to continue. If you’re generating quality content for your site then you’ll likely have nothing to fear. And if you’re taking possession of this content you can also lessen the potential for scraping.
Twitter may lack the numbers that Facebook has, but it has quietly become the main way people converse. When Tim Tebow threw a touchdown in overtime there were 9,420 tweets per second discussing the event. This shattered the previous record for a sport related Tweet, but I don't expect it to last. When there is a Bulls game, or the Lakers are playing fans of all type are interacting about the play on the floor.
Yet, sports is just one type of conversation going on in Twitter. And Hollywood and the media are starting to do what it can to encourage conversation on their product. It seems as if every major show begins with a hashtag related to the series. There is even a top ten list every week. When the President spoke last night, ABC had a hashtag prominently displayed during the speech and the follow up remarks by Republican rebuttal.
Webinars, seminars, and conferences usually display hashtags so that participants can interact about the event and post questions.
Advertising on Twitter is still in its infancy, but its bound to increase. When Paranormal Activity 3 was released on DVD a few days ago, it was listed in the trends as a promoted trend. Whether it impacted sales has yet to be seen, but it was sure to encourage discussion. And even if Twitter still struggles to find a way to make money from their popularity, its already become an integral part of many advertising campaigns.
For your business Facebook and Google+ may be the flashy mediums to develop your brand. But if your going to interact with prospects and current customers, Twitter may be more effective. And to interact it doesn't mean just Tweeting about your services and products, it means giving them something meaningful or valuable so they'll follow you. Follow the example of Hollywood and find a way to encourage discussion.