While SEO is itself a form of marketing, these tenets fall into the more general category of online marketing. It is along these lines that the terms social media optimization and social media marketing are also defined.

Social media marketing is primarily about knocking down your site’s walls so that content can be readily discovered, dialoged, distributed, and shared by diverse online communities and social media portals. Virtually every Web 2.0 site carries a degree of commercial usefulness. Yet some sites have built-in hindrances, such as “nofollow” links or pages accessible only behind passwords.

Before you embark on your journey into social media, you have to understand and implement some key metrics in order to track your success.

But those links won’t help unless you customize your page to be publicly viewable especially the links part.  Then Google can index it and follow the links.  The “public page” URL is good to use your name.  If your name is already taken, try hyphens or adding a geographic locator to your custom URL.  Get your name quickly or someone else will unless your last name is Fondrk, theres only like 5 Fondrk’s in the USA the rest are in Finland.  Not only does it make it easier to tell to others your URL, it may further help your page’s click-through rate in the SERPs.  

Here are some other tips for getting the most out of your LinkedIn profile:
• Add as much of your work history and education as you feel comfortable, I even added my high school job (it actually helped me reconnect with my old boss because he listed it too!)
• Make as much of your information publicly available as you feel comfortable (the worst thing that could happen is ridicule over the fact that you were a subpar bus boy at the country club).
• Participate in the different areas of LinkedIn and be sure to visit the site at least once a week to see what is happening within your network, post questions and your friends may answer or find they have the same question.•
• Check out the “Profile Views” to get an idea on who may have been checking out your profile.

Contests can be good lead generators. You need to do you homework first or you’ll run into legal issues or management issues.  Email newsletters still work, but they have a downside: huge commitment, monthly work, labor intensive.  Kids! They’re great at communicating viruses (especially this time of year) and viral marketing. They swap SMS messages and mention and recommend products in ways more likely to be indexed by search engines.  Coupons. Creating coupons is easier than ever now with Google Checkout.  Nearly 20 percent of U.S. Internet users have redeemed a coupon online. Sixty percent of Pubcon attendees used a coupon.  Come on admit it how often have you Googled ‘online retailer x promocode’ right before checkout.  If you haven’t you could be missing out on the savings!

For the most part it is really not anything too surprising.  For your perusing I have taken the five best tips and summarized below:

1. Create unique, accurate page titles

• Use brief, but descriptive titles - Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long, Google will show only a portion of it in the search result.  

2. Make use of the “description” meta tag

• Accurately summarize the page’s content
• Use unique descriptions for each page

3. Improve the structure of your URLs

• Use words in your URLs
• Keep your directory structure flat

4. Good practices for site navigation

• Create a naturally flowing hierarchy Use mostly text for navigation
• Use “breadcrumb” navigation - A breadcrumb is a row of internal links at the top or bottom
• Use sitemaps: HTML and XML
• Create a custom 404 page

5. Create great content

• Write clear, organized, using accepted relevant language
• Make fresh unique content

No one “sends” an idea unless:
a. they understand it
b. they want it to spread
c. they believe that spreading it will enhance their power (reputation, income, friendships) or their peace of mind
d. the effort necessary to send the idea is less than the benefits

No one “gets” an idea unless:
a. the first impression demands further investigation
b. they already understand the foundation ideas necessary to get the new idea
c. they trust or respect the sender enough to invest the time

This is another way to give your company a professional look and is fast becoming the standard way of distributing documents online.

Make powerful macro tools with JavaScript. Simplify the Acrobat user interface by displaying only your preferred menu items, tools and menu items. Share all tools and toolbars across workgroups.
Some options now available in a pdf file include:

* Create powerful JavaScript macros
* Share toolbars across workgroups
* Make shortcuts to menu items, commands and tool buttons
* Open files and Web pages from the toolbar
* Make multiple toolbars
* Copy toolbar buttons from any of Acrobat’s own toolbars
* Acrobat 3d has tremendous potential for communicating visually (pdf)

When designing your logo I will normally create a sheet of examples that I have worked on from which you can then choose your favorite. This can then be developed to your requirements or a final version mocked up in vector format (This enables it to be resized to any dimension and retain its original quality).

What to Expect from Your Logo Designer

I recently had my website designed, and my new logo created for my company. I would like to use it, but my printer can’t use the file he gave me! I just got business cards printed from it, but they didn’t look good. I don’t know what to do.

A frustrated business owner recently came to me with this problem. I told him to calm down, because I can redraw the logo in a program where he can use it, and it will always look professional. He was relieved, but didn’t like the idea of having to pay for the logo - AGAIN. It has been my personal experience that it is easy to get the wrong type of art when you purchase a logo design. This was not the first business owner that came to me with this exact problem. Beware of the Internet Designer!! They design for the web. This is not a bad thing in that they have some really innovative programs and can build you a quality website. But when it comes to your logo, you may want to create a brochure, or business cards, or a banner for a show. You will either have to live with a pixilated and unprofessional logo, or pay someone else to fix it for you. (When you look at a printed piece and the edges should be clean lines but come out fuzzy, or jagged - that is pixilated)

~Don’t be afraid to ask questions~

What I aim to do is arm you with basic knowledge about graphic lingo, file types and what you should ask for from your designer.

~It is always a good idea to get multiple formats on disk from your designer~

This allows you the freedom to use your logo in different software and applications. It also allows you to give printers the format that they need. This will save you time, and above all, setup charges when you go to utilize your logo for print.

Raster vs. Vector

When your logois initially designed it may have lots of flare, and be visually stimulating; eyecatching. Your logo can have fancy drop shadows (a shadow of the image projected on the page behind it to add depth) and pretty gradients (gradual fade from one color to another) and look amazing. But, this logo may not be useful for every project.

Example: Your company wants to use the logo for a brochure, but the budget only allows for a one color print. When the brochure is printed your company’s logo looks jagged and spotty.

Example 2: Your company wants to take out a telephone directory ad and the colors are red and black. You do not have the option to add red to your logo, and when it prints it looks fuzzy.

You need to begin with clean lines and no frills! So, when you hire your designer, be sure to tell them that you need the logo initially designed in a VECTOR based program.

~Be strong! This is important!~

What that means is that your logo or artwork is made up of mathematical lines and points that tell the computer where to draw the lines.

What that means to you is that your logo can be resized, re-colored, and changed to fit any project at any time without compromising the integrity of the art. You will have those clean lines at any size!

If it is not vector, it is considered a raster image. Those gradients and drop shadows mentioned , they are usually created in a RASTER based program. Raster images are photos.

What that means is that pixels and dots make up these images.

What that means to you is that you cannot go as big as you want with it, and you cannot have your graphics person or printer change the colors on a whim.

Vector Programs and file extensions:

Adobe Illustrator .ai

Macromedia Freehand .fh? (7,8,9,10? version number)

Corel Draw .cdr

.eps ? (encapsulated postscript) virtually any artist, or print shop can open and save this kind of file with any of the programs listed. This is usually a sign that you are getting VECTOR art. However, raster images can also be saved with this extension. That does not make them Vector!!

.pdf ? (portable document format) not all that portable. Not even a little bit changeable to the common printer. Can be vector ? but usually not. (it is all in how they created and saved the file.)

Only after the initial design phase, if you want gradients, drop shadows, or a beveled edge (a way to give a shape three dimensional depth) have the artist add these elements. If they say they design in PhotoShop, be wary. This is a raster based program, and the artwork can only scale so large before it begins to look bad (pixilated).

Computer formats for the final design

Vector: (necessary)

.eps ? Have them save this to an older version, to be sure more printers can use the file.

Parent Program ? whatever program the vector art was initially designed in.

Raster: (totally optional)

.jpg (.jpeg may not work on your computer) Get a one color and a full color jpg in two sizes, a large and a small one.

.bmp (bitmap) Ask for a black and white bitmap at a high resolution (1800 dpi). There is no white background ? so it is more versatile than a jpeg. This is created from your one color logo Vector art.

.gif (optional) with transparent background for web use

.tif (tagged image format) This can be the full color logo. Ask for this in CMYK for printing projects.

.psd (PhotoShop Document, they may use Corel Photo-Paint) This is the program most widely used for the fancy FILTERS, (gradients, bevels, drop shadows?) If they use this program, get an UN-FLATTENED file. It will take up tons of memory, so just get it on disk. This is also for printing projects. It is especially useful if your printer needs to change something.

If you bought a car and the salesman offered to install a CD player for $200, or you could go to a store, buy the same stereo, and pay another company to install it for $500 ? what would you do? Everyone wants to save money and hassle down the road. Ask for the logo in vector first and have an open discussion about your options.

Et, surtout Amuse-toi!