Social Media Bookmarks has become very popular among blog users. A lot many customizable plugins are available through out the net.

I have analyzed some of the SMO plugins available. You can go through the descriptions provided below and make your own choice of plugins. Some of the Plugins are given below:

Quick Social Bookmarking Plugin

You can set this as an icons at the bottom of a post that allow you to quickly bookmark the current page at a number of social bookmarking sites (Digg, Del.icio.us, blink, furl, etc.)

Features:

Wordpress 2.0 compatible
Produces XHTML valid code
Easy to install
V 0.8 plays nice with Digg (forthcoming)
Images can be styled using CSS class=”socialbkmark”
Automatically generates appropriate submit links for:
Spurl
Simpy
Newsvine
Wists
Blogmarks
Del.ici.ous
Digg
Blinklist
Furl
Reddit
Fark
Yahoo My Web

Download This Plugin

Social Bookmark Links

Social Bookmark Links is a plugin that has the same functionality as the Social Bookmark Link Creator.

Social Bookmarks

Social Bookmarks is a plugin for WordPress that adds a list of XHTML compliant graphic links at the end of the posts that allow the visitors to easily submit them in a number of different social bookmarking sites.

Download This Plugin

Hope these plugins will make your Wordpress blog more active in social media marketing.

Google has come up with a new idea in its Adwords ads, wherein it will be now possible to include associated images in a normal PPC ad. So far, the online marketing companies have been using the Google’s Content Network to run image based or banner PPC ads. With this new development, the PPC ads being displayed on Search Engine Result Pages will now display associated images. Earlier, Google had implemented video ads in Adwords several times. It is only that, this time, Google is experimenting with a new form.

To initiate this new technique, Google has already started some Adwords ads with associated images. These images can be viewed through a “Plus Box”, indicated by a plus symbol just under the usual Adwords ad title and description related to the word or phrase you have put for search. The plus symbol is accompanied by the words, “show products from”. On clicking the plus symbol, you will get all product listings related to the search word. Each product listing will display an associated image.

The images in Adwords, although an attractive feature, will consume a large space. If you click on any one of the product results to open it up, you will find that a single ad accompanied with an associated image is taking up the whole page. In other words, the entire visible part of the page will be consumed with a single ad.

There is one more variation to this concept of images in Adwords. The ad is also displayed on the right hand side. This is possible by pushing down other ads on the right hand side. Such an implementation may sound a better option for many, as it does not change the layout of the natural or free results. So, if you are looking for sponsored ads, this can be a great opportunity to advertise your brand or product using an associated image. However, there is another side of the whole story. The ad on the right hand side of the page, while pushing down other sponsored ads, may shift them on to the subsequent pages. This means, it is the time to gear yourself up for even more fierce competition in terms of bidding for keywords. The advertisers in order to retain their ads on the first page of the search results will start bidding higher for the relevant keywords. For them, even when their ads are opened and viewed by the online visitors will not make any difference. They will try to place their ad along with the relevant image on the first page itself, so that there is no chance of their ad being pushed down to the subsequent page.

The online marketers need to keep an eye on these latest trends being introduced by Google. The day is not far away when you may witness Google’s adventure with multimedia for search ads.

Google has teamed up with Adobe to come up with a new algorithm for flash. This new algorithm will enable the Googlebot to index the textual content in SWF files of all kinds along with URLs embedded in Flash. This is indeed a great development, as till date, it has been able to crawl only the (X) HTML architectures without being able to access any text content and URLs in flash. With this new capability, Google can further strengthen its position as the leader in search engines.

The new capability of Google to handle, crawl and index text content in Flash has added a new dimension to its overall service. Google has made use of the Adobe’s new searchable SWF Library to enhance the effectiveness of its new algorithm. However, there is still a lot that remains to be done on this front. As for the time being, this capability is limited to SWF files of all kinds, which include Flash “gadgets” such as buttons or menus, self-contained Flash websites, and everything in between.

According to Ron Adler and Janis Stipins, the software engineers at Google, “If your website contains Flash, the textual content in your Flash files can be used when Google generates a snippet for your website. Also, the words that appear in your Flash files can be used to match query terms in Google searches.” This is however, only one aspect of the story. Google’s new algorithm is also capable of discovering URLs that appear in Flash files, and feeding them into their crawling pipeline. This means that Google can now crawl more of your website. And all this can be done without requiring any special action on the part of the webmasters and web designers. All that is required is only Flash content in your website.

Google’s new algorithm for Flash is limited to only textual content. As a result, if your Flash files include only images or videos (FLV files), Google will not be able to recognise any of such pages. Also, the text that may appear in those images or videos will not get indexed by Google. As this new algorithm targets only text in Flash files, it will not be able to generate any anchor text for Flash buttons which have some URL, but no associated text. As said by Ron Adler and Janis Stipins, “If you prefer Google to ignore your less informative content, such as a “copyright” or “loading” message, consider replacing the text with an image, which will make it effectively invisible to us.”

The new Flash algorithm of Google suffers from a few technical limitations. First, a Flash file may not get indexed by Googlebot if it has been loaded via JavaScript. This is because Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. The second limitation is that this new algorithm does not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. Yet another limitation is the inability of the algorithm to index Flash content written in bi-directional languages, such as Hebrew or Arabic. However, all these limitations are only for the time being and are likely to get resolved soon.

In today’s highly competitive world, every business is trying to grab the top slot as far as online marketing is concerned. They want to get the highest page rank in all major search engines. However, obtaining higher page ranks through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a game that revolves around relevant keywords.

Keyword finalisation is one of the most critical aspects of SEO. It is aimed at finding relevant keywords that are capable of attracting quality traffic, and also have less competition. Relevant keywords refer to those keywords that best describe your business correctly. The nature of your business should be in sync with the keywords that you are including in your SEO campaign. The second criterion is the ability of the chosen keywords to attract quality traffic. This will be decided by the popularity of the keywords chosen. So, it is always advisable to go for keywords that are searched for the most. However, it is equally important to choose keywords that have less competition. This means, you should try to look for keywords that are relatively un-optimised for. This will help you bring down the bidding cost of keywords.
 
There are certain tips or steps that can be followed to make the keyword finalisation methodology simple as well as effective. The first step is to decide the theme of your website and the second step is to generate keywords that are in complete sync with the chosen theme. While doing so, it is advisable to target more general keywords for the home page and other higher level pages. For deeper pages, such as the subdirectories or sub domains, specific and qualified keywords should be generated.

Finalising seed keywords, also known as primary keywords in relevance to the theme of your site can be done in a couple of ways. First, it is the client who provides the words that he feels are relevant to the nature of his business. However, in most cases, it is the SEO firm that generates relevant seed keywords after studying the client’s website and domain thoroughly. Sometimes, you may find businesses hiring outside domain consultants for such keywords. Yet another way of generating seed keywords list is to use the meta tags of the competition websites. This is advisable only as a supplementary source, and not as a full fledged source. However, if you already have a keywords list with you, looking for the meta tags may not be given much importance. Instead, you can use tools like WT and Overture to find other relevant primary keywords. Try to get at least 10-12 seed keywords.

The seed keywords are usually single word. So, you can add qualifiers to the seed keywords to transform them into key phrases, also known as sub theme keywords. The qualifiers can be in the form of location, sub product, colour, part number, activity, and so on. The expanded seed keyword or sub theme key phrase can be of 2-3-4 word length. These phrases fulfill two purposes. First, they expand the list of your seed keywords. Usually, a list of 20-30 key phrases can be considered to be a good number. Second, they offer good rankings for your website on the major search engines. This is because, it has been found in a recent study that most of the searchers often use longer queries on the search engines. According to this study, the average length of sub theme keywords should be around 3 for the optimum results.

Besides adding qualifiers to the seed keywords, you can also play with the words generated under sub theme targeting. This will help you get even  a larger set of keywords.

Is this the end of SEO as we know it?

Well, no, but I think things may have just gotten a whole lot tougher!

Google has released this new Promote and Remove feature to its Search Engine Results Page (SERP) which allows you (the searcher) to rank the relevancy of their results.

Welcome social media to Google!

And I totally understand it, too. Google wants to provide its users with the best result possible. By asking you to rank their results, the Google Promote feature does just that!

But how far does this go? Do your rankings affect the way others see their own results?

Right now, I don’t think so. These results are personalized to you…sort of.

One test I did perform was Promoting my own site on one computer and then seeing where it appears in the SERPs on another computer. Sure enough, my OTHER computer showed the promoted ranking (and it was highlighted to show me that it was, in fact, manually promoted).

Of course, I immediately called my dad (who lives about 10 minutes away) to do the same search, but my site was NOT promoted there.

What does this mean?

Well, I am assuming that Google is tracking these rank promotions on THEIR side through your IP address. (i.e., no cookies) But these Promoted rankings do not extend beyond your own IP address.

Still, this also means that Google is gathering data. It is tracking these results. (And I strongly doubt that they are doing it for fun, either). My guess is that they will start to record and correlate this data with their own search results.

Does this mean a whole new Google Algorithm for the future? Maybe.

Does this mean that we will now have to receive votes for top placement in Google? Maybe.

Does this open huge doors for black hat tactics and manipulation of rankings. Of course.

And that is probably what will ultimately prevent a full voting based search engine results system. I don’t have any clue where this is all going to go (if anywhere), but I do know two things:

• SEO will STILL have to exist to some degree - Google will still need some type of algorithm to determine who serves to be voted on.
• Social Marketing and Media are growing FAST! We thrive on democracy in this world and it was only a matter of time for the internet to really catch up.

Since 2006, AdWords local business ads have been connecting your business with local customers. Today, Google Adwords team is excited to announce some new features for local business ads, making it faster and easier for potential customers to find your business.

Before the details, please note that while local business ads can appear in several countries and on a number of web properties, the changes described here will only affect local business ads that appear on Google Maps.

Info Window Features

Beginning today, your ad’s information window in Google Maps will feature new interactive links that are designed to connect users to your business quickly. The info window is the window that opens when a user clicks on an organic search listing or a sponsored result on Google Maps.

Previously, a click on your ad’s info window could only take the user to your website. Now, users will be able to interact with the info window to get the information they’re looking for about your business, right away. The new links include “Get Directions,” “Street View” (where available), and “Save to My Maps.” Shortly after these links will be implemented, it will also have a “Send” link, allowing the user to send your business info to their phone or email. Users will still be able to click through to your site if they wish — the info window simply offers additional free functionality.

Reporting Capabilities

Google says that they also heard the requests for a local business ad report so, starting in a few weeks, a new interaction report for local business ads will be available through your account’s Report Center. The report will help you accurately assess your return on investment with local business ads by detailing how many users opened your info window and clicked on each of the new interactive links.

Often, Maps users are looking for different information than Search users. The new interactive links and the interaction reports should not only help customers connect with you faster but should also help you understand how to better target Maps users versus Search users.

With these changes, Google says they are excited about providing users with more information about your business and providing you, their advertisers, with more features for your ads. If you’re not already advertising with local business ads, this might be a good time to experiment. If you’re interested in learning more about this format, check out the AdWords Help Center’s section on local business ads.

Source URL : http://adwords.blogspot.com/

Comment : As always, Google has provide this feature which will really help not only the advertiser, but the user searching for their offerings. Moreover, getting Local Business Ads Reports will reflect your return on the local business ad spend.

This step-by-step detailed instructions covers some of the basics of Stumbleupon:
>> Stumbling on sites and pages

>> Rating the sites and pages that you Stumble!

>> Reviewing your Stumbles

>> Finding and Adding Friends

>> Where to find more Help

Stumble!

Click the Stumble! icon on your toolbar. Stumble upon will send you sites and pages based on the Topics that you choose. Stumble! as much as you want. Stumbleupon has millions of sites in its databases, all submitted and recommended by other Stumblers. There is a drop-down menu (beside the icon) that allows you to Stumble! in many different ways

Exercise your thumbs!

As you Stumble! you, click the thumbs to tell the system what you like (or dislike). = I like this! (send me more like this, please!) = I don’t like this! (don’t send me any more pages like this, thank you!) Made a mistake? No problem! Simply click the same thumb again to un-thumb the page, or click the opposite thumb to change your rating.

Have your say!

When you Stumble! a page or site, first thumb it, then click on to see reviews & comments made by other Stumblers, and to add one of your own. On the Reviews page, click on: Add your own review and tag the page for future reference . Type your comment into the Review box, then press: Try it! (You will learn how to delete comments in the next step).

You have mail!

Chances are that you have already discovered the mail icon: It changes to alert you when you have a personal message (PM) from another Stumbler: You have to Stumble! a bit, choose a nickname and be displaying a photo (or avatar) before you can message other stumblers. There are ways to block messages from Stumblers, if you choose not to be contacted.

Look at Your Pages

Click the icon to see Your Pages - this is where your comments and reviews are displayed for you, and for other stumblers to read. From these pages, you can edit (or delete) your reviews, and Add Comments. When you have more than 10 reviews the oldest is moved off the front page - but you can still use the PREV and NEXT buttons to see ALL of your reviews! There’s another drop-down menu here: Stumble! a bit and get some reviews & comments on your pages before exploring this facility (or see how it works when you visit other Stumblers’ pages).

Choose some Friends! On Stumbleupon, the term Friends means something very specific: Friends are other stumblers that you select because you like their pages. The system uses your choice of Friends to help select the sites and pages that you see when you Stumble! Click the icon on the toolbar: You won’t have any friends when you first start Stumbling, but the system will suggest some for you. This list will change as you Stumble!, rate sites, change your topics, and so on. Visit some of these suggested friends, look at their reviews and comments and then, if you like their sites, click this button (you’ll find it at the top of their pages):

Explore your Network

Another good way of finding Friends is to look regularly at your Network page. Initially, you will just see a view of Stumblers that have recently visited your pages, but as you Stumble! and add friends, you will see more information here.

Get to know the Toolbar

This guide has shown you the key functions of the toolbar, but there is more to discover. Lots more! Part of the fun of SU is in finding out some of the secrets for yourself, or to meet your fellow Stumblers and ask them How do you do that?! Take a look, too, at this icon on the toolbar: It reveals a drop-down menu that contains all sorts of useful stuff, including Toolbar Options which will let you customize your toolbar. You can update your topics here, change your password, and lots more.

Getting Help!

On Your Pages, there are links to Help and Prefs - (you will find these links on other pages as you explore). The Help resources are constantly being improved upon, with many of the contributions coming from other Stumblers. There are FAQ’s, You ask questions of other Stumblers in the Help Forum. (You have to join forums in order to be able to post, and some restrictions apply). Take some time to explore Prefs - here you will discover options to provide more information about yourself and your interests. You can also add (or change) your photo or avatar here. Note that you have to press Save Changes to make any changes permanent!

Now, Go Stumble! And have fun!

Source URL :http://www.stumbleupon.com/guide/

Comment: This posting will definately help those who are new in the domain of social networking.Today people know only the name of Stumble Upon but how it works,what is its purpose is not so well known.So this was my effort to let you know how to begin with Stumble upon.

More updates soon !!

Here is an update on New Keywords tool by Google :

Google has launched a new keyword research tool intented for Adwords research, to find more PPC keywords, BUT, this tool can be used to find relevant and longtail keywords for any website pages or blogs and blog post titles.

This keyword research tool is different BECAUSE it is based on YOUR SITE, not just on general words.

Lots of Research Options:

1. You can just enter your URL

2. Enter you URL and enter specific keywords to research

3. Set up additional filters, like monthly searches, competition amounts, like low and high and more.

The results are:

• Based on actual Google search queries
• Matched to specific pages of your website

Just log in with your Google info, enter your information and get:

1. Set of keywords related to the pages of your sites/blogs

2. Actual number of monthly searches

3. Competition

4. Cost of PPC bidding for each keyword, this can tell you how valuable that keyword phrase is.

How to Use This Information:

This tool is not meant for researching new site keywords but the best way to use this tool is to get good keywords and long tail keywords when writing blog posts and adding additional pages to any websites using keywords that people are searching for.

URL: http://getinternetmarketingstrategies.com/2008/11/new-google-keywords-tool/

Social Network traffic has seen some interesting trends as of late. There is no doubt that social networks are here to stay, and will only continue to become more mainstream. However, not all sites are seeing booming traffic, in fact some seem to be dieing.

Below you will find 37 sites, compared, with their traffic estimates over the last 12 months via Google Trends for Websites.

Google is by no means completely accurate, but like most tools that estimate traffic you need to look at trends and not exact figures.

3 Interesting Social Network Traffic Analysis Takeaways:

• There seems to be a decline in social traffic for a multitude of sites since September
• Twitter and Plurk are seeing explosive increases while Pownce and Identi.ca are falling.
• Facebook, Flickr, Hi5, Linkedin, Mixx and Yelp to name a few are all seeing large surges of increased traffic over the last year.

Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.

Those who ignore the efficacy of social media usually fall into three categories; the ones who don’t know much or anything about social media, the ones who are interested but don’t know how to use it and those who don’t believe in the value that a social media strategy can bring to any site or business.

Followings are the few important tips you can build a brand and use social media to market your business:

1. Create an identity, a brand for yourself on a social media site. Social Media marketing unlike other forms of marketing is a slow process. The key to SM marketing is being recognized first which certainly takes time. Your brand and your identity within that particular community define who you are and how effective you can be in marketing, both for your clients or yourself.

2. Watch what you do because everybody else does. Watch your manners! Being behind a computer certainly gives an added bonus of doing whatever and saying whatever you want. But if you are looking to grow within a network and become a part of it, this is something you certainly want to keep in mind. Politeness and good manners, they don’t go wrong anywhere and the same is true when it comes to Social Media.

3. Be active. If you want to network and get in on a powerful network of people on a social media site, the key is to be consistent. Do not use a site or its services half heartedly. Put in time and effort consistently and the results will be more than you expect.

4. Your profile is your brief bio. Most social media users tend to ignore their profile. This is a wrong step towards networking. Add links to your sites, blogs and other social media site where you are active. Give other users a chance to connect with you on a personal basis through IM and such.

5. Be careful in what you choose. Make sure to choose a site that fits with your personality or will help you network with like minded people. Study SM sites before you decide to jump in on one and work hard to earn, well, nothing. Do your due study before hand so you can network with the right people.

6. It’s a slow process. Networking and marketing through Social Media is a slow process. If you don’t have the patience to wait for something good to come along, SM won’t do much good. It’s all about building a brand, getting to know others and building yourself as one of the powerful force that drives the community within. There is no immediate gain but the long term return is much more than initial gain.

7. Be a host, welcome others. Most users tend to ignore new users as they are pre-occupied by trying to impress the power users. This is a wrong approach. New users can be as effective in near future as the current power users simply because they might rise to that status as well. Again, it takes time but be welcoming. Be seen as someone who is influential, who is willing to help, who is willing to give without asking. Build yourself as the guardian and you will get your dues back.

8. It’s all about them. We all want things in return and the same is true for your contact too. One of the reasons most people fail in social media scene is because they fail to give. Before you ask, try giving. Ask your contacts and network what you can do for them and do your best to fulfill their needs. Next it will be your turn and when you give without asking you get without asking for it as well. It’s a win win situation.

9. Become an early adopter. Not asking you to be a guinea pig, but one of the sure fire ways to become known and establish yourself as someone influential is to get in early. Take for example; if you are early at an event and get a chance to invite everybody in through the door, you are most likely to be known by all. Be an early adopter and invite the new one’s in. Welcome them and show them around.

10. Become a community builder. One thing that will help you tremendously in networking and becoming influential is if you become an active participant in building the community. Be the voice; let others know how things can change for better and what needs to be done. Be the leader. Remember, people like to follow. Establish yourself as a community builder, a leader within that community. As time passes by you will have enough to reap for all your hard work.

There are hundred more ways you can build a brand and use it to market your business. Social Media marketing unlike other forms of marketing is a slow process. The key to SM marketing is being recognized first which certainly takes time. Your brand and your identity within that particular community define who you are and how effective you can be in marketing, both for your clients or yourself.

Source: http://marketinghackz.com/10-simple-tips-to-get-started-with-social-media-marketing/

Takeaways:

• SMO is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites.
• Social Media marketing unlike other forms of marketing is a slow process.
• Anyone who wishes to be successful in social networking should make it a point to go through the profiles of other people in detail.
• It might be a good idea to leave comments on the blog of other members with a back-link (if allowed) to our site. This would help to increase traffic and visibility of our website.