Google defines a keyword as a word or phrase describing your product or service that you choose to help determine when and where your ad can appear. To start, it’s important to know:

• The keywords you choose are used to show your ads to people. Select high-quality, relevant keywords for your ad campaign to help you reach only the most interested people, who are more likely to become your customers.
• When someone searches on Google, your ad could be eligible to appear based on the similarity of your keywords to the person’s search terms.
• A great keyword list can help improve the performance of your ads and help you to avoid higher prices. Poor keywords can ultimately cause you to have higher prices and lower ad position.

A good keyword list should be limited to between 5 to 20 keywords for each ad group. An important point to note is that you shouldn’t create keywords that overlap with other ad groups in your campaign.
There are four different keyword match types:

1. Broad Match – According to Google AdWords, a brad match creates variations when you search. Even when you search by different or similar keywords, you might see the ad. For example, with the keyword “running shoes,” your ad could appear in a search for running shoe, running, shoes, red shoes, running boots, etc.
2. Phrase Match – Phrase match allows you to reach people that search using your phrase,event if there other terms/phrases before or after your phrase. For example, the keyword “running shoes” could trigger your ad when users search for “red running shoes” or “running shoes red,” etc.
   
   
3. Exact Match – As the name suggests, exact match triggers your ad only when users search for the exact same keyword. For example, your ad would not show up when a user searches for “red running shoes” or “running red shoes” if your keyword is “running shoes.”
   
   
4. Negative Match – To control your cost, you can set the keywords that you don’t want your ads to show up for. For example, if you’re selling new clothes, you would not want your ad to appear when users search for used clothes.

It’s not always effective to use broad keywords because it’s doesn’t enhance your reach to potential customers nor is it more competitive. Moreover, it requires higher bid amounts. In contrast, using more specific keywords doesn’t allow you to reach as many people as you would expect – it is so specific that it limits the searching audience. Therefore, it’s important to strike a proper balance and plan a good strategy to build your keyword list. This can be a work in progress – you can always change your keywords by removing or adding them based on performance.
There are many tools to help you build an effective keyword list.

• “Google AdWords Keyword Tool” helps you by recommending related keywords with the frequency of how often users search for particular keywords to see how competitive it is. By using this tool, you will not only receive more information, but can cut down on guesswork.
• “WordTracker” is a tool that allows you to choose what type of match you want: broad, phrase, or exact. It also allows you to include misspellings, plural forms of the word, or adult keywords. With this tool, your able to broaden your keyword list even further.
• “Soovle” is a great tool that helps find useful keywords. Have you noticed that as you type your keywords in the search box, Google immediately begins suggesting related keywords in the drop down menu? That is exactly what Soovle does for you.  Soovle shows the drop down menu keywords from different sites including Google, Yahoo, and Amazon.

For a better and clearer understanding, take a look at this video of how you should choose keywords based on Google AdWords http://bit.ly/yvEp3R.

-Written by Chris Nuniam, 451 Marketing search marketing intern.  Chris is a December 2011 graduate of Emerson College. Tweet at @ChrisNuniam

The image on the ad also plays a very important role in determining the advertising cost. Similar to other paid advertising platforms, Facebook rewards high performing ads with a low cost-per-click (CPC). As a rule of thumb, the higher the click-through rate (CTR) of an ad, lower is the cost-per-click. One of the most effective ways to increase the CTR is by using attention-grabbing images.

Make sure to choose your ad images wisely. Yes, flashy images are necessary, but don’t select the images blindly. Keep your target audience in mind when shortlisting images and always ask yourself two questions. First, will they be willing to click on the image? Second, will they be able to relate to the image? Put yourself in your target audience’s shoes and never use images that you wouldn’t click on.

So, which images work best in Facebook? Here are four images types that can help improve your ad performance:

1.   Company Logos: Logos are great for increasing brand awareness. I would definitely suggest using logos in ads which are trying to get more “likes” or generate some buzz. Logos are also a good starting point -you can kick off the first ad by using the company logo.

2.   Product Images: If you have a popular product or your target audience is aware of your product, use it in the ad. People can relate better to ads with product images. Make sure though that the product is clearly seen in the image. Definitely test out ads with product images if you are a B2C business.

3.   City Images: Test using city images in your ads. Especially if you are based locally, using these types of images can help people notice your ad. You could use images that highlight prominent attractions in the city. For example, if you are based in New York, try testing out an image of the Statue of Liberty. Or if you are in San Francisco, use an image of the Golden Gate Bridge.

4.   People Images: Ads with people tend to do well in Facebook. Use images of people who are looking directly towards the camera. Again, keep in mind your target audience while selecting the image. So, if you are targeting your ad to nurses, use images of people wearing scrubs; if your audience is business professionals, use images of people in suits.

These are some image types that we have seen perform better on Facebook. What images do you use for your ads? Share your thoughts in the comments below or tweet us @451Heat.

Whether you are trying to acquire new customers, generate more leads, or simply sell the product, paid advertising can come to your rescue. The advantage of paid advertising is that people are already searching for your product/service. As opposed to conventional marketing, a paid search audience already has the intent to buy or learn more about your product.

Apart from the benefit of having qualified traffic, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has many other positives. First off, it is easy to start. Setting up your account is simple; you can start off with a budget that you are comfortable spending. Secondly, PPC offers flexibility. You can test out different versions of ad copy, headlines, and call-to-actions. Lastly, paid ads are great way for increasing brand awareness. Even if people don’t click on your ad, just showing up in the search results for your key terms builds trust factor and brand recognition.

However, there are challenges involved in paid advertising. With more marketers turning to PPC advertising, the paid search space is becoming  competitive. More and more brands are fighting for the top ad positions. Because your competitors are bidding on some of the same keywords as you are, this could result in a price war. Keywords which once cost few cents a click now can cost considerably more. This isn’t a problem if you have a large budget to work with. But if you have a limited budget, you need to keep an eye out on your account spend.

So how do you stick to your budget and still get the most out of your PPC ads? Here are 5 tips to better optimize your PPC budget:

1.  Negative Keywords: Negative keywords are search terms that you don’t want your ads to show up for. Look through the search query report and make note of such keywords. Once you’ve identified these keywords, add them to the account. You can add negatives at the ad group, campaign, or account level.

2.  Device Targeting: You can set your ads to show up on desktops/laptops, tablets, mobile devices or on all of these devices. If your website is not mobile ready, users will struggle to read the content on your site. In such a case, it makes sense to exclude the mobile audience and just target your ads to people searching on desktops/laptops and tablets.

3.  Ad Scheduling: Ad scheduling lets you specify certain days of the week when you want your ads to appear. You can also adjust bids for your ads during certain time periods in a day. Review all of your campaigns and see what days and times are best converting. Shut off your ads during the low converting period.

4.  Ad Delivery: Ad delivery determines how quickly your ads are shown each day. You can have the ads show up evenly throughout the day, or you can have them show as quickly as possible. If your campaigns are consistently hitting the daily budget cap, switch the setting to allow your ads the opportunity to appear throughout the entire day.

5.  Bid: Keywords can be very expensive. If you are running on a tight budget, being at the top ad position might as well drain your daily budget in a few clicks. In such cases reduce your bid, be at a lower ad position and use that saved budget in getting more clicks.

These are some quick tips that we’ve found useful in better utilizing the budget. How do you optimize your account spend? Share your thoughts in the comments or tweet us @451Heat.

Top Story: SOPA/PIPA and the Online Protest

Image via Google

By now, you’ve seen the infographic above and are aware of SOPA/PIPA and the rather voal calls to action from many prominent online companies.  Just in case, here’s a rundown on why many are outraged by the proposed legislation

• What do they stand for? SOPA is the “Stop Online Piracy Act” and PIPA stands for (deep breath) Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act.
• SOPA, in the House of Representatives, and PIPA, in the US Senate are both targeting foreign websites that infringe on copyrighted materials
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), one of the major opponents to the bills, argue that “The standard for immunity is incredibly low and the potential for abuse is off the charts.  Basically, sites can be cut off based on “reasonable belief of infringement” – so, event if the claims made against a site end up being false, the site suffers.
• Supporters of the legislation, mainly in the entertainment industry, feel that the charges brought on by SOPA/PIPA opponents have been blown out of proportion, the definition of infringement is clearly defined, and that the legislation is crucial in protecting their digital assets.

What we found most compelling about the reaction to the two pieces of legislation were the “protests” and banding together of many of the major social and search platforms in the US.  We’ve featured some of the most prominent below (click on images to enlarge):

Under the Radar: Super Bowl XLVI Will Have a Social Media Command Center

If you’re a social media user, chances are you’re posting to your Twitter feed and updating your Facebook status every time you’re watching a football game. And come Sunday, February 5, millions of users will be talking about the Super Bowl via social media, about everything from the players to the score to the commercials to the parking. Parking? Well, yes. The city of Indianapolis is expecting 150,000 visitors for Super Bowl weekend and they’ll be using social media to assist visitors with everything from finding parking to discovering the best the city has to offer.

The city will be setting up a Super Bowl Social Media Command Center today and it will remain in place until after the big game on February 5. The digital marketing agency managing the command center will set up advanced search tools and analytics to determine what fans need help and then will jump in and offer assistance where needed.

We can’t wait to see how the Social Media Command Center will manage to help people during the Super Bowl weekend and if it will set precedence for events in the future. Will all large-scale events begin to follow in suit and work to assist visitors and patrons? While we can see this working really well, we can also see people taking advantage of the increased customer service and getting extra upset when they can’t be helped. You know, like when there isn’t any close-by parking and they do have to walk a mile to get to the stadium.

Tool of the Week: Facebook Launches Timeline App Integration Platform

When the Spotify’s Facebook integration first launched, people either loved it or hated it. Some users thought it was fabulous that they could see what all their friends were listening to. And others were not happy that their Facebook friends could get such an up-close-and-personal look at their taste in music (perhaps they were a bit embarrassed?). Well, as of last week, there’s even more activity for you to see across your Facebook timeline. Facebook is now using the “open graph” API to allow developers to create apps that share user activitis on Facebook. From Pinterest to RunKeeper to TicketMaster, there are now close to 80 apps that you and your friends can integrate with your Facebook timeline.

Is this a good thing? Well, it depends on how you use Facebook. If you don’t care what articles your friends are reading, how many miles they’re running, what artists they’re listening to, or what food photos they’re taking, then this app integration will likely just annoy you and clog your newsfeed. But if you do care, or want to share your every move on the Internet with your own Facebook friends, you’ll find yourself loving the app integration. Luckily, Facebook makes it pretty easy to keep the integration shut off and to decide who you actually want to share details with. So, unlike the Spotify integration, you won’t find yourself unknowingly sharing your Justin Bieber obsession with all of your Facebook friends. Phew.

Of course, this is only the start with Facebook’s app integration and it’s likely we’ll be seeing more and more apps join in on the Facebook fun in the future. Before long, we might never have to leave Facebook.com. Which is exactly what they want.

Around The Hub: Samuel Adams Beer ‘Hops’ into Social

The Samuel Adams beer company has been the subject of social media scrutiny in the past because of its social media presence, or lack thereof. But that all changed in January, with the brewer launching a Twitter account, blog and crowd-sourced beer creation contest on Facebook.

Twitter: The account was officially launched on January 19^th, and between then and the morning of January 23^rd they had accumulated over 2500 followers and tweeted nearly 350 times. Almost every single one of their tweets is a response to someone who had engaged them. It looks like they were waiting to get their strategy in line before entering the space knowing they would be inundated and needed to be prepared for it. This was smart because if they had joined without a plan in action they may have ruined their chance at a strong account from the get-go. And as they said themselves…

Blog: Along with a Twitter account came a brand new Samuel Adams Blog. What is extremely interesting about this is the choice of content for the first ever blog post, that was written by founder Jim Koch. For the introductory post on the blog, Koch defended harsh words about Sam Calagione and his brewery Dogfish Head written in a Beer Advocate thread recently.

This demonstrates the tight-knit bond of the beer community, where they value their craft over rivalries with competing breweries. This also shows how fully invested in the social space the company now is, and that they are willing to push out original and possibly controversial topics.

Facebook: Samuel Adams has a decent size fan page (about 134,000 fans) with a fairly strong amount of engagement, but in the past had been lacking any really unique content. This changed when they partnered with Guy Kawasaki to create the ‘Crowd Craft Project’ – a beautifully designed and executed Facebook app that lets beer drinkers help create the next Sam Adams beer.

The app lets you choose different settings for types of yeast, hops, malt, body, clarity and color to create your ideal beer. The app lets each person submit one brew, with the top beer will be announced on February 5^th and it being debuted in Austin and Boston in March.

What do you think of the SOPA/PIPA online backlash? Do you have your Facebook timeline yet? Will you be tweeting during Super Bowl XLVI? Tell us what you think of the Sam Adams social strategy? Follow the feedback with #451Labs hashtag and tweet us at @451heat.

Thank’s to @maxesilver, @susie, @halleyalice for contributing to this week’s #451Labs post!

As the prevalence of Facebook advertising continues to grow, more and more marketers are willing to spend on these ads. And I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t. The ads are well targeted, effective, and, most importantly, have a large audience. Facebook presents this unique opportunity of not only increasing awareness and branding, but also initiating engagement and fan creation.

The only problem with Facebook ads is that of Ad Fatigue. In general, people get tired of seeing the same ads again and again. Since people log into their accounts at least three to four times a day, they are bound to see the same ads multiple times. As a result, they are less likely to click on these ads. Facebook understands this phenomenon and reacts by decreasing the number of ad impressions. All these factors directly affect the click-through rate (CTR) which in turn affects the cost per click. Basically, now you’re stuck in a cycle where your ad impressions have decreased, the click-through rate has dropped, and the only way to improve is to increase the bid and/or budget.

So, how can you overcome the constant battle of Facebook ad fatigue? Similar to search engines, Facebook and its vast user base loves fresh content! You need to “freshen” up your ads every few days. Rotating the ads frequently will enhance their performance. Remember – the higher the click-through rate, the lower the cost per click. By refreshing your ads frequently, you’ll be able to maintain the same impression share at the same cost.

Here are some quick tips to keep your ads fresh:

• Images: Make sure you have at least two images ready for every ad. Rotate the images every few days to avoid ad fatigue. Use/test images that are known to do well on Facebook – company logos, headshots, product photos, and happy people. An image is the most important feature of a Facebook ad. Therefore, change the image as frequently as possible to prolong the lifespan of your ad copy.
• Headline: Every time you notice a drop in CTR, change the ad headline. Use a different call-to-action. Ask a question. Use the brand name in the headline. Test and find out what clicks best with your audience. This might seem to be a minor tweak, but can definitely help boost the CTR.
• Ad Copy: Similar to search, always perform A/B testing. Test out at least two different versions of ad copy at the same time. Ask questions. Use a strong call-to-action. Put segment-targeted language high in the body text. Ask users to ‘like’ your brand on Facebook. Often, short ad copy (<90 characters) outperforms  longer copy(>90 characters). Most importantly, replace the low performing ad with a new contender.

These are some tricks we’ve found useful in fighting Ad Fatigue. How often do you refresh your ads? How do you deal with this problem?

-Joselin Mane, Director of Social Media Strategy, 451 Marketing

Every year, technology innovators and early adopters from around the world converge upon the city of Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest interactive festival (the first in a series of festivals focused on interactive technologies, music, and film, respectively). This year, the 20,000 in attendance represented a veritable who’s who of Social Media and Digital Technology.  Surprisingly, it was my first year attending the festival, but it more than lived up to the hype.  The overarching theme – new technologies that take social networking offline and convert online interactions into real-life behaviors.  Applications that can help businesses and individuals capture value in their day-to-day social networking. (I can’t say I was surprised – I’ve been going to, promoting, and hosting hosting TweetUps for the past few years that have made this same online-offline conversion).  Here are a few of the applications and companies that caught my attention at this year’s festival.

Addieu is a free application that enables you to connect with someone on all social networks at once.  I really liked this application and met one of the founders while I was in Austin. “With just a few taps, you’ll be friends on Facebook, following each other on Twitter, and sharing your location on Foursquare.” Bye-bye, business cards.

Hurricane Party was an application that I saw in action many times while I was in Austin.  It’s a free iPhone app that helps friends find, share, and create spontaneous parties – “Life moves fast – hurricanes move faster.” Hurricane Party serves to replace email chains, voicemails, and confusing group chats with a single place where you can discover where your friends are going while simultaneously letting them know your plans. Hurricane Party can help businesses by increasing visits on a slow night, raising awareness about a new item on the menu, or promoting an event. For me, what really stands out about this app is the map view, what they call a “Forecast” – you can see parties around you with different colors indicating how many people have signed up.

Car2go is a company in Austin similar to ZipCar with one major difference: you can leave your car anywhere (well, anywhere in Austin, that is). Whenever you need a car, you can book one of 300 Car2go’s in the city, drive where you want and for as long as you want, and simply park the car at your destination – no need to return to a pre-determined spot.  Also unlike Zipcar, all the cars are the same make and model – smart fortwo. These cars are so small they could be parked almost anywhere –  two of these could be parked side to side in the same space a normal 4 door sedan would take up.  Again, I love the simplicity of the map view which allows you to see where the closest vehicle is in relation to you at any given moment.

Yobongo is a place for people to share ideas, talk about what’s happening, and connect with interesting people nearby. Basically, if someone asks a question, people using Yobongo can answer them as if they were a friend. I’m actually in a group with the founder of the application. Unfortunately, this app is currently only available in San Francisco, Austin, TX, New York, NY and Long Beach for TED conference.

Beluga is an app that helps groups of friends stay in touch on the go. For instance, you could use it to plan a night out or just share updates and photos. In Beluga, ‘pods’ are private groups of friends. Within a pod, all members see all updates, photos and shared locations, but no one who is not a member of a pod can access its data.  Even though a very similar service called GroupMe won this year’s breakout award, most of my friends opted to use Beluga because instead of giving out your phone number you provide an email.  Beluga was great tool to use in Austin because it was an easy way for me to privately talk to my friends and determine whether it was worthwhile to travel across town to an event. It was also great to know where everyone wanted to meet for lunch. There were times when Beluga users became very active and many popup notification messages would appear in a very short period of time. However this didn’t happen too often. And even though the groups were create at SXSW, I am still active with 2 of my Beluga pods.

LevelUp (a SCVNGR property) works with businesses to create the best deals within a city.  Each business has three levels of deals: good, better and best. When you use a deal on LevelUp, you’ll “level-up” to get access to the next level deal at that business. You get introduced to the best places in town with an unbeatable deal that gets better as you use it. Think of it like getting rewarded for becoming a regular at the places you love. Currently it’s only available in Boston and Philadelphia. I haven’t found any deals that have appealed to me but I will keep checking it.

Foursquare isn’t new to the scene, but there are some interesting developments in the application.  As before, by “checking in” via a smartphone app or SMS, users share their location with friends while earning virtual badges and points. Foursquare’s new version has 3 major changes: “personalized recommendations” which now makes it easier to look at friends’ check-ins/tips to get ideas of good restaurants in a given area; an updated point system to reflect more of the things users are proud of; and, most importantly for business,  six new ways to reward user loyalty: Check-in Specials, Friend Specials, Flash Specials (e.g. the first 10 people to show up after 5 p.m. get a free drink), Swarm Specials, Newbie Specials, Mayor Specials and Loyalty Specials.  Foursquare had many custom badges for SXSW in addition to many promo’s. Interestingly enough, my friends’ activity on Foursquare didn’t seem to be as high as I would have suspected while I was at SXSW.

Last, but definitely not least, Gowalla (a local Austin company) is another “check-in” location-based app that does more than just “check-in.” You can take photos, comment on places friends go, and share highlights from your life.  You may also find virtual items left around the world like digital souvenirs. Many items are redeemable for real-world rewards such as apparel, movie tickets, gadgets and more.  Check in with Gowalla on your phone to stamp your Passport at each place you visit – kind of like stamping your passport in real life. Since Gowalla was a local Austin company, there were more local brands using and promoting them.

So, how are these technologies helpful for businesses?  With an integrated PR, Social, and SEO strategy, fear of diminished foot traffic fades away. It’s no longer cool to just sit at home on a computer and socially network – the new social media is actually social and applications foster meeting up with other users, enjoying special offers at business you love and discovering new places and venues with your friends.

When writing a press release traditional PR practitioners wear a number of hats- content creator, creative director, editor and in the last few years- SEO expert. Press releases provide an opportunity to contribute to your brand’s search visibility and yet many releases are issued without being optimized for SEO.

Defining your company’s or client’s keywords, and a keyword strategy should be done in advance of release writing and involve key members of your PR, marketing, and web marketing or SEO team. You should have three to five very relevant, high search volume keyword terms that are core to how you define your company in the market. You’ll use these terms in strategic places throughout each press release. Don’t have a team to collaborate with you? You can use Google’s keyword tool while doing your keyword research to find variations of the keywords that are generating a high number of searches.

Marketwire includes a nice tool in its distribution process that will give you an SEO grade on your release, but the most effective way to apply SEO savvy to your release is to work it into the drafting process. Here are a few simple steps to creating an SEO-smart release:

• Retain reference to company name and pre-defined, most important keyword(s) in headline of all press releases
• Strategic value of keyword placement in body of release:
  1. Headline – First 70 characters most valuable; include one of your top keywords here
  2. Sub-headline – Include secondary keywords here
  3. First sentence; first paragraph – Include related keywords to re-enforce main keyword
  4. Peppered throughout release – Avoid anything that sounds “spammy;” use natural iterations of your keywords
• Use about 3-5 hyperlinks in body of release
• Attach URLs to descriptive anchor text – hyperlink keywords to URLs on your website that use that keyword and/or is focused on/optimized for that keyword
• Include the complete URL for your company website in the boiler plate (http://…)

Don’t forget to use your three to five most important keywords other places too, including on social media channels! Twitter posts, blog posts and Facebook updates are all great places to apply your SEO strategy.

What hasn’t changed is that our industry is still attracting and cultivating some of the smartest, most talented, and ambitious individuals around. This list consists of the people who the 451 team feel are setting the bar high.

As with any list of this nature, it cannot be comprehensive. If you know any great social media strategists out there, we invite you to contribute their names with a brief description of their work for us to post.

We look forward to seeing what these people will do in 2011!

Stephanie Agresta (@stephagresta) has been instrumental in developing digital strategies for Microsoft, Windows Phone, PepsiCo, HP and P&G. In 2010, she was named to PR Week’s “40 Under 40.” Her first book, Perspectives on Social Media Marketing, was released in October 2010. Additionally, she is a frequent speaker at industry events and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Social Media Advertising Consortium (SMAC).

David Armano (@armano) is SVP at Edelman Digital. He has 14 years of experience in the industry with the majority of his time spent in digital marketing and user experience design. Armano currently writes for the Harvard Business Review, and for his blog, Logic + Emotion, which is ranked in the top media and marketing blogs according to Advertising Age. BusinessWeek also named him to its “Best of 2006” list.

John Battelle (@johnbattelle) is an entrepreneur, journalist, professor and author who has founded, or co-founded scores of online, conference, magazine, and other media businesses. In addition to his work at Federated Media, Battelle continues to serve as the Executive Producer and Program Chair of the Web 2.0 Summit, as well as brand manager for BoingBoing.net. Battelle maintains Searchblog, which covers the intersection of media, technology, and culture. He was named one of the “Most Important People on The Web” by PCWorld.

Connie Bensen (@cbensen) is a community strategist whose passion is community building, and the related facets of social networking and branding.  Forbes.com listed her blog (conniebensen.com) as one of the top 20 marketing and social media blogs by women in 2009. She is also a 2009 Fellow with the Society of New Communications Research and speaks at leading social media conferences.

Ron Callari (@roncallari) is a self-proclaimed social media scientist and editorial cartoonist who currently consults, and is a freelance correspondent in the social media space. Callari’s published works explore current trends on the digital horizon, social media, humor, politics and innovation. His mission is to provide brands with social media expertise to distinguish them from their competition, while turning customers into brand advocates. Novologies’, the company Callari works for,  social media service FLIP.TO has been successful in adding over 50 hotel BETA customers internationally in the last 8 months.

CC Chapman (@cc_chapman) is a dedicated freelancer who works directly with clients, or through agencies in both creative and strategic roles. In 2009, he launched Digital Dads, a site where dads can share their thoughts on a variety of topics. Additionally, Chapman launched a podcast series in 2004, titled “Managing the Gray,” which provides, in simple terms, new media strategies, and information on technology and social media. His highly anticipated book, Content Rules, is available for pre-order.

Adam Cohen (@adamcohen) is a partner at the digital agency, Rosetta. Cohen leads Rosetta’s social media practice. His blog, A Thousand Cuts, was started in February of 2008 to encourage conversations about social media and interactive marketing.

Bob Collins (@robertcollins) is a digital media and public relations strategist with over 16 years of experience in marketing, new media communications, and public relations. He is the organizer and host of Boston’s Social Media Breakfast.

Angela Connor (@communitygirl) is an online community strategist who currently works for Capstrat as a social media manager. Angela is the author of 18 Rules of Community Engagement: A Guide for Building Relationships and Connecting with Customers Online.

Joe Cothrel (@Cothrel) is the Chief Community Officer at Lithium Technologies. He is Lithium’s top expert on community and social best practices. He has helped more than 300 companies execute social efforts.

Jeff Cutler (@JeffCutler) is a social media journalist and an event speaker who has run Novel Ideas for 19 years. Novel Ideas specializes in social media, advertising, marketing, non-profits and journalism. Jeff currently writes for  over twenty blogs, including Things To Worry About and Bowl of Cheese. Additionally, he is a Social Media Trainer for http://SPJ.org – the Society of Professional Journalists.

Caroline Dangson (@cdangson) is currently a consultant with Dachis Group. She focuses on the cultural and operational transformation required for companies to realize the full potential of social business initiatives. Caroline writes about relevant social media topics and issues for Dachis Group’s corporate blog.

Jason Falls (@JasonFalls) owns, co-authors and edits Social Media Explorer. He is an active public speaker, and thinker in the world of digital marketing and social media. As an industry-leading blog, Social Media Explorer is ranked consistently in the top 25 of Advertising Age’s “Power 150 Marketing Blogs.”

Laura Fitton (@pistachio) is the CEO and Founder of oneforty, which helps people discover thousands of tools that help them do more with their businesses, careers, or lives. She re-launched Pistachio Consulting, the first Twitter for business consultancy, in September 2008 to connect businesses to new ideas and innovations using all the tools of microsharing. Laura co-wrote Twitter for Dummies.

Kyle Flaherty (@kyleflaherty) currently works for BreakingPoint Systems, a leading provider of network simulation and traffic generation tools. Kyle manages external communications, community relationships and influencer marketing. He also regularly speaks at events and writes in his highly regarded industry blog, Dance with Strangers, which he “hopes will be the most read marketing blog in the entire world.”

AJ Gerritson (@AJGerritson) is a founding partner at 451 Marketing and has more than 13 years experience in brand strategy, search engine optimization, public relations, advertising and interactive marketing. He is a frequent speaker on the national circuit, and in 2010, Boston Business Journal named AJ to the “40 Under 40” class. AJ writes for 451 Marketing’s blog, 451 Heat.

Paul Gillin (@pgillin) is Principal of Paul Gillin Communications where he consults and advises on strategies to optimize social media’s use for marketing.  Prior to founding Paul Gillin Communications, he was the founding editor-in-chief of TechTarget and was also an executive editor of Computerworld. He has written two books, The New Influencers and Secrets of Social Media Marketing. Both books explore social media’s influence in marketing. Paul also writes a regular column for BtoB Magazine.

Tyson Goodridge (@goodridge) is Founder and Principal of Dialogue, a Social Media Education and Advisory Services Firm.  His firm specializes in social media training, curriculum development and consulting. Dialogue’s clients include IDG, Chaco, Harvard School of Public Health, and Novartis. He’s also founder of “Eat, Drink and Be Social” and is social media instructor/consultant at Apple retail stores.

Rachel Happe (@rhappe) is the Principal and Founder at The Community Roundtable, a peer network for community managers and social media practitioners. Happe also has a blog, The Social Organization, where she discusses her perspectives on how social media can be used as a problem-solving tool for organizations.

Doug Haslam (@DougH) is a supervisor for Voce Connect. At Voce, he has worked on social media projects for Nokia and Yahoo!. Haslam is also an organizer for Podcamp Boston, which provides ideas for content makers, by sharing knowledge of podcasting, blogging, video blogging, and social media. He writes regularly for his blog at doughaslam.com.

John Havens (@johnchavens) is the Senior Vice President for Social Media at Porter Novelli where he provides digital and social media counsel. Before that, Havens was the Vice President of Business Development at Blog Talk Radio. Havens is the co-author of the book Tactical Transparency: How Leaders Can Leverage Social Media To Maximize Value and Build Their Brand.

Shel Holtz (@shelholtz), Principal of Holtz Communications + Technology, is a writer, blogger and consultant. Holtz has written several books, including How to Do Everything With Podcasting and Blogging for Business. He is also a five-time winner of the International Association of Business Communicators’ “Gold Quill Award.”

Marta Kagan (@mzkagan) is the US Managing Director for Espresso and runs the blog, The Secret Diary of a Bonafide Marketing Genius.  Her presentation “What The F**K is Social Media?” has been translated into seven languages. She has received such accolades as a finalist for the “2004 Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs” and a finalist for Fast Company’s 2004 “Fast 50 Winner.” She is a recipient of Maildog Manager’s “Best in Show” award.

Rachel Levy (@bostonmarketer) is the Founder and CEO of the website, webinarlistings.com, which allows companies to promote webinars and simultaneously allow people to find webinars that may be of interest to them. Levy uses her twelve years of experience in marketing as a consultant and trainer for social media at Rachel Levy Consulting. She blogs at rachel-levy.com/blog.

Charlene Li (@charleneli) is a New York Times Best-Selling Author for her book, Open Leadership. She co-authored the book, Groundswell, which was named one of Amazon.com’s “Best Business Books of 2008.”  Li is the founder of Altimeter Group, and blogs at charleneli.com/blog.

Ravit Lichtenberg (@ravit_ustrategy) is the Founder and Chief Financial Officer of Ustrategy Consulting, a boutique consultancy that specializes in helping companies understand their customers’ psychology in today’s social world. She blogs at ravitlichtenberg.com.

Steven Lubetkin (@podcaststeve) is the managing partner of Lubetkin & Co. LLC, which specialize in Internet broadcasting and communications consulting. Lubetkin is a Senior Fellow of the Society of New Communication Research and is a recurrent speaker on social media. Lubetkin is the recipient of the “2010 ASTRA Award” for B2B podcasting from the New Jersey Communications, Advertising and Marketing Association.

Simon Mainwaring (@simonmainwaring) is the owner of Mainwaring Creative. Mainwaring works as a brand consultant who has over 20 years of performance experience. He has received over 60 international awards. He wrote a book, scheduled to be released in 2011, in response to Bill Gate’s speech, “Creative Capitalism.” Mainwaring’s book seeks to show ways in which new media can help promote positive world change.

Joselin Mane (@JoselinMane and @BostonTweetUp) carries 20 years of experience in computer technology as an Internet marketing consultant. Mane is the CEO and Founder of LITBeL Consulting, and the founder of Boston Tweetup. He focuses on leveraging Internet to systematically reach clients’ financial and growth goals.

Drew McLellan (@drewmclellan) is the CEO of McLellan Marketing Group. He is also a blogger and author. McLellan is recognized as a national branding and social media expert, and continues to be sought after as a public speaker. His blog, Drew’s Marketing Minute, is highly regarded in the marketing space.

Marc Meyer (@marc_meyer) is a digital, and social media strategist for Ernst and Young. Additionally, Meyer is the founder of the website, Hash Tag Social Media, which hosts a live sixty-minute Twitter chat at 12 pm every Tuesday, and helps people connect and share ideas related to the use of social media for businesses.

Tom O’Keefe (@BostonTweet) is the creator and founder of bostontweet.com.  His site was created as a way to generate business in a downturn economy and has transformed into an excellent way to find out about the happenings in Boston as well as to drive traffic to certain businesses.  With over 20,000 followers on Twitter and thousands of visitors to his blog, O’Keefe provides customers with the information they want, and boosts traffic to and gives valuable demographic information to businesses.

Neil Patel (@neilpatel) is the co-founder of two internet companies, Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics. He was named to Technorati’s “Top 100 Bloggers” list, and according to the Wall Street Journal, is one of the top influencers on the web. Patel achieved these accolades by the age of 21. He uses his successes and failures as an entrepreneur to help others on his blog, Quick Sprout.

Erik Qualman (@equalman) is the author of the book, Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business, and the blog, Socialnomics. Erik is an MBA Professor at the Hult International Business School. For the past 16 years, Qualman has helped grow the digital capabilities of many companies, including Cadillac, EarthLink, EF Education, Yahoo!, Travelzoo and AT&T.

Neal Rodriguez (@notifyneal) is Managing Director of Shovecom, a full-service New York Interactive Agency. He is an online marketer with seven years of experience in social media engagement and search engine optimization. Neal writes for the Huffington Post and PBS.org.

Mike Rowland (@ImpactInteract) is president and founder of Impact Interactions. There, Mike leads the company’s engagements with large organizations to utilize online communities, and social media to engage site visitors and generate measurable business results. Prior to founding Impact Interactions, Mike built Participate Systems  into one of the pioneers in the online community management world.

Steve Rubel (@steverubel) is SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital. In his role, he helps clients identify emerging technologies and trends that can be applied in marketing communications programs. Rubel also explores these topics on his site at steverubel.com, and in monthly columns for Forbes.com and Advertising Age.

Marian Salzman (@mariansalzman) is president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, North America.  Marian is the author or co-author of 15 books on topics ranging from current affairs to the youth market and the commercial workplace.  She co-founded Cyberdialogue, the world’s first online market research company, in 1992.  Her annual trends forecast is highly regarded in the industry.

Allan Schoenberg (@allanschoenberg) is currently the Director of Corporate Communications at CME Group. He has broad experience in all aspects of business-to-business communications, including social media, brand management and marketing. Allan also has been teaching many public relations classes in the graduate school at DePaul University since 2005, and undergraduate public relations classes at Loyola University since 2006.

Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) is currently working at Rackspace to build a new community of people fanatical about tech startups called, “Building 43.” He is a tech enthusiast, video blogger and media innovator who searches for world-changing technologies. Before working at Rackspace, Robert worked at Microsoft as an evangelist and one of the people who started its Channel 9 video community.

David Meerman Scott (@dmscott) is a marketing strategist, keynote speaker and the best-selling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR. He is also the author of Real-Time Marketing & PR. David’s popular blog (davidmeermanscott.com), and numerous speaking engagements around the world give him great credibility and authority to discuss how businesses are implementing/should be implementing new strategies to reach buyers.

Derek Showerman (@derekshowerman) is currently the Director of Digital Marketing and Business Development at Environmental Data Resources. Prior to working at EDR, he was the Senior Manager of SEO at Sokolove Law, LLC and prior to that, he was the Director of Social Media at Authority Domains. Derek is considered a pioneer in the industry as he utilized Web 2.0 tools when he owned and ran a music website before they were utilized regularly in the business world.

Jim Storer (@jimstorer) is an experienced community manager and social media strategist who co-founded The Community Roundtable. Within the past ten years, he’s built and managed communities as well as consulted with both start-ups, and large enterprises on how to effectively build lasting value with community, and social media solutions.

Aaron Strout (@aaronstrout) is the Chief Marketing Officer at the social media agency, Powered Inc.. He provides a social voice for the company by speaking, blogging, podcasting and participating in social networking activities. Aaron is a founding member and former president of BIMA, and serves on the advisory board of the prestigious Social Media Club.

Mike Troiano (@miketrap) is the Principal of Holland-Mark, a leading independent advertising agency. Mike serves on the boards of several VC-funded technology companies, including Crimson Hexagon. His blog, Scalable Intimacy, is listed on both AdAge’s “Power150” and Alltop, and he is ranked in the top 1 percent of the most influential people on Twitter.

Todd Van Hoosear (@vanhoosear) is the Principal of Fresh Ground, and a founding member and interim director of the Social Media Club of Boston. He is also the VP of Social Media for Publicity Club of New England and has lead regional, national, and global public relations teams in the telecommunications, CAD/CAM, networking and Web spaces. Todd was recognized as a 2009 Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research.

Mark Wallace (@mwallcomm) is the Vice President of Social Media for EDR. He oversees the strategic growth initiatives for Commonground – the global community for environmental and property due diligence professionals. Prior to joining EDR, Mark was Vice President of Community Sales at Mzinga, a leading provider of social networking consulting, technology, and services

Tamar Weinberg (@tamar) is the author of The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web and the creator of Techipedia. She provides consulting in internet marketing, and manages community support and  advertising at Mashable. She specializes in social media consulting and strategy, blogger outreach, reputation management, and search engine marketing.

Alan Wolk (@awolk) is the Managing Director of Social Media Strategy at KickApps, a fast-growing company that builds, and maintains social web sites and applications. His blog, The Toad Stool, is “one of the ‘must read’ blogs for our industry,” and looks at the confluence of advertising, marketing and the social web. Wolk is also the founder of “The Hive Awards,” a new awards show that debuted at SXSW Interactive in March 2010.

Adam Zand (@nooneyouknow) is the Marketing & PR Consultant and Connector at Almost Ubiquitous. With over 16 years of business development, marketing and media relations experience, Adam specializes in marketing communications, PR, social media, advertising, content creation, and business development.

Dan Zarrella (@danzarrella) is an award-winning social, search, and viral marketing scientist and author of the O’Reilly Media book, The Social Media Marketing Book. He has been featured in numerous well-known newspapers and speaks at conferences around the country. In 2009, he was awarded “Shorty and Semmy” awards for social media and viral marketing.

Add your picks for top social media strategists below!

DIY SEO can help your website get a jump start on getting found, but there are many nuances to SEO.  It’s a good idea to work with a professional SEO to take you to the next level after you get a good grounding yourself of how it works.  First, I’d take a good look at respected online sources.  Here are some good ones:  seobook.com, searchengineland.com, and of course (straight from the horse’s mouth), Google’s SEO Starter Guide.

Then, Try Your Hand at These DIY SEO Basics:

Keyword Research – Figure out how your target audience searches for your site.

• Brainstorm a list of 10-20 search terms that you think people would use to find you.  Enter each one in Google and/or bing to see if your website would be a reasonable fit with the other sites showing up for these terms.
• Look at competitors’ sites that are showing up for your target terms. Are they using any other keywords that you haven’t thought of?  Add these to your list.
• Use a free keyword tool like The Google Keyword Tool to get even more ideas and to see the level of interest and competition for each term you’re considering.
• Narrow your list to those keywords you think will produce the most relevant search traffic.

Incorporate Keywords – Strategically use keywords in your site meta data and content.

• Match each keyword on your list to pages on your site with corresponding content.  (spreadsheets are good for this). Don’t force the issue, though.  If you have “orphan” keywords in your list that don’t match up with any pages, keep them in a holding area to use for future relevant content.
• Use the target keyword for each page in the page’s title (keep it under 60 characters), in the meta description (should describe the page in under 145 characters), in the url if possible, and within the page content (several times, naturally, and in Headings, if possible).

Optimize Site Structure – Make sure your site is easy to navigate for humans and bots.

• Google hearts html.  Don’t mess around with too much flash and don’t have your text tied up in images.  This happens all the time!  Engine bots can’t read it.
• If your navigation structure is logical to humans and is text based, you’re head and shoulders against many other (even very expensive) sites out there.
• Make sure your robots.txt files are in order.  This is not as intimidating as it sounds. They basically tell engines which pages to crawl, index, not crawl, etc.  Here’s a brief primer: http://www.robotstxt.org/

Get Links – Getting links back to your site is an ongoing process, but well worth your time.  Note: Don’t overdo it because your site could be penalized and disappear from search results if it appears like you’re trying to dupe the engines.

• Make sure you are getting links from sites that should be linking to you (associations you belong to, Chambers of Commerce, BBB, etc.)
• Anytime you give a presentation, a quote in an article, a testimonial or any activity that may be mentioned online, ask if the author could send a link back to your site.
• Write informational articles about your industry and submit them to articles directories like ezinearticles.com
• If possible, try to include your target keywords in the links back to your site.  This instructs search engines to associate your site with those words.

Finally, to measure your results, use a free Analytics program like Google Analytics.  It’s very easy to set up and there are tons of user resources on the site.  See what’s working and what’s not and adjust your strategy.  Most DIY’ers need help sometimes.  When my Chevy’s muffler falls off (which I’m anticipating will happen soon), I probably won’t try to figure out how to fix it myself – I’ll go to the garage.  If you hit a snag, get in touch with a professional SEO who can help you trouble-shoot, strategize, and basically rock with your search marketing.

As marketers, most of us try to figure out unique ways to get our message out to the right audience.  Marketers need to stay up to date on new tactics, and figure out what works best for their companies.  If you keep doing the same tactics repeatedly, they may not be working as well.  Being able to step back and figure out what is best for your company, including new tactics, is a must.

One tactic I’ve seen a lot of recently is the social media contest. It is a fun way to engage customers, but it certainly takes some work. If you decide to join the social media world, and choose to run a contest that will engage your customers, think about how you will actually market the contest.  Better yet, you need to know how to measure its success.

Source: http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/social-trophies-150×150.jpg

Here is a quick guide to a successful social media contest:

Define Goals: The first thing you should do is define your goal.  What is it you want to get from the contest, more sales, brand awareness, more visitors to your website, or all of the above?  Once you decide exactly what you want, then you can move to – the fun part – phase two: what the contest will be.

Get Creative: As social media contests get more popular, so will the need to think creatively to engage customers.  A contest that coincides with the message your brand gives is a good place to start in the creative process.  Another option is to have the public help with a new decision such as a new flavor of candy, help find a baby to be the new face of the brand, etc..  This makes your customers feel that they have a part in your brand, which makes it easier for them to enjoy it.

SEO: SEO efforts are important for not only your website, but also for any other promotions online.  If your contest is based online, it is important use SEO.  Search Engine Journal points out that you should, “put appropriate keywords in your contest name.  9/10 times people will use your contest title as the anchor text, so make sure you take advantage of a well-thought-out contest title before you even start thinking about promotion.” SEJ goes onto point out you shouldn’t host your contest solely on another site because that limits the amount of potential visitors. “More often than not contests are very linkable.  I suggest hosting the contest on your site, and leveraging tags to aggregate YouTube videos. That way, contestants are still using YouTube, which is widely established as the de facto video hosting source, and people are familiar with the interface.”

Measure: Once you have outlined a contest idea and optimized it properly, you need to make sure you are able to measure your efforts.  Many times marketers understand they need to get into the social media realm, but they don’t know how to measure their efforts.  Have a landing page for the contest to measure its popularity.  Also see how many links you can get from your new efforts.  As SEJ says above, contests are very linkable—so take advantage of this and measure how many backlinks you can get from the contest.  If it is successful you can do more as time goes on.

These suggestions are just a quick reference to get started.  Any contest that does well is very thought out and can take time to implement properly.  Having a quick check list is a great place to start, but it is just that, a place to start.

Shannon Suetos is an expert writer on credit card processing based in San Diego, California.  She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as credit card processing companies at Resource Nation.