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TweetMeme Allowing Others to Share Your Content on Twitter

I have just recently added TweetMeme to my blog. That’s the little icon to the right of each post that allows you to click the word tweet and share my content on Twitter, plus tracks how many people have retweeted a blog post.  This is similar to the Digg icon you may have seen on the Web on other sites.

Both TweetMeme and the Digg icon allow for easy ways to encourage the sharing of your content in new innovative ways. Take a look at the bottom of our blog post and you will also see our Share This icon. This WordPress plug-in gives your readers more options to share your content on Facebook, Twitter, and social bookmarking sites.

The reason I have chosen TweetMeme over the Digg icon is simply that I am much more active on Twitter at this time than I am on social bookmarking sites.

It is very simple to set up TweetMeme on your blog or on your web pages.  Here is a link to the TweetMeme plug-in page for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and other applications. If you prefer to install TweetMeme on a web page, here is the link to the code creator for pages, RSS feeds, emails, and other ways to share your content.

By encouraging the sharing of your content you reach a much wider audience and create more opportunities for your content to go viral. TweetMeme makes it easy!

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Press Release Writing Seems Easy, But Is It Really?

We’ve started writing press releases again after a several month hiatus. Writing a good press release is a real art and requires a different mind set than either blogging, content writing, or creating marketing content.

Press releases are best written in a third person, objective, informational tone. It is not unusual for me to spend two hours to three hours in writing a press release. The wording has too be dense yet creative, simple yet engaging, and informative and not too self serving.

That being said some of our press releases have really gotten our clients noticed. One press release got one of our client’s a call from a buyer at the Shopping Network, another got a phone call from Inside Edition, and another got an interview in a news piece that was nationally syndicated over 50 television stations on the nightly news.

Not every press release grabs the mainstream media attention, but a well-written press release on a topic that is trending can reap big rewards with free press and news media coverage.

When I write a press release I use the format that PRWeb, my favorite supplier, uses – the who, what, where, when approach. I always use a title, summary, and about closing complete with contact information. I find that that is the most concise and professional format.

Client’s sometimes get confused on press releases. They are not marketing pieces (well not like the typical marketing piece), they are not stories, they are not white papers, and they are not blog posts. Press releases are short pieces that put a newsworthy event in a easy to understand concise format to try to engage the media. I find it important to always have an angle to use as an approach. Sometimes with the right angle you can attract a national news audience.

To check out samples and pricing for our press release writing services I invite you to visit http://www.mccordweb.com/copywriting/press-release.php.

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Google AdWords Trends for April

This is interesting and as I am seeing this over many accounts I felt it warranted a comment. Conversions are very tough to come by so far this month using Google AdWords and nearly non-existent on Yahoo.

I have a feeling that much of this behavior is tied to tax time and feel that things will open back up for advertisers after April 15th, but so far this month and starting at the end of March I have seen a consistent drop in the number of lead conversions.  Yahoo seems to be hit the hardest, but Google AdWords is affected strongly as well.

Click traffic and impression traffic is still good at this point, but people are not buying at this time. AdWords works in cycles with ebbs and flows. It is the advertiser who sticks through the tough and good times that ends up with the best results. So if things are “flat” in your Google AdWords account, take heart other advertisers across many business sectors are experiencing this same trend.

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Google Maps Optimization or Account Crashing?

Just recently one of our clients asked our opinion on a cold call she received with an offer to optimize her Google Maps account for big money. What the business said they would provide was intriguing to me so we agreed that my client would be my “guinea pig”. What I found out is highly interesting and makes me concerned about anyone spending money on Google Maps optimization at this time.

This is what we did to match the same protocol the Google Maps optimization business said they would provide.

  1. I set up a domain name on GoDaddy that was keyword dense and used a term that the client did not place on Google Maps for already. I then pointed the domain to the client’s website and masked the domain so that it appeared that the website had the new domain name.
  2. I set up a GMmail account and tied it to a new Google Maps account. The business was adamant that a GMail account had to be set up as in their words  “Google gave preferential treatment to Google Maps accounts that had a GMail email address”. *I just have to say at this point, that this is bunk. I believe that the business wanted the GMail account so that all interaction with Google Maps would be under their control. I have never seen a situation where Google has preferred an account with a GMail email address over a non GMail address.
  3. I set up a new Google Maps account targeted to highlight the service that the client was not showing for already on Google Maps.
  4. I then did a phone PIN verification with the client to complete the Google Maps set up.

Now it is important to know that this client had excellent Google Maps placement on all terms and locations except for this one term we used. What happened next may warn you to stay away from businesses that are selling Google Maps Optimization.

In about two weeks or maybe even less the new Google Maps account was showing, but what was concerning was that it had taken over the old account. Now, all Google Maps entries were showing our “bogus” URL! In other words the new account superseded all the placement from the old account. That was particularly concerning to me as the URL did not match the URL on the “real” website.

I took immediate action to correct the problem, but what this shows is that if you already have a Google Maps account and you pay an optimization firm to work over your account, you are not adding to what you have, you are replacing what you have. If the tactic has been to create a “bogus” masked domain that is keyword dense then suddenly your website information does not match your domain and the reader cannot bookmark any of your inside pages.

You do not need optimization to place on Google Maps! In fact paying an optimization firm that is going to perform the functions I have detailed may work to hurt you more than help you by diluting your URL , brand, and confusing the customer with two domain names.

I recommend for Google Maps, setting up an account using your legitimate business domain, email, and location. But I do recommend a monthly review of content, update of coupons, addition of new images and in general a “laying on of the hands” on all content there. By keeping your information fresh you can place well on Google Maps.

For businesses that currently do not place well on Google Maps I recommend updating your content and then setting a schedule to update and freshen content weekly to see if you can get improvement this way.

For businesses that are already on Google Maps and place well, don’t mess with anything except to keep your account fresh. To try to optimize an account to boost placement even further using the optimization techniques that I have tried may actually work to harm your account.