Turns out the Old Spice Guy is more than the latest quasi-celebrity to get your girlfriend’s attention – he’s a social media phenom that has helped buoy sales of the men’s antiperspirant and fragrance line significantly. According to Dean McBeth, a digital strategist for ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, sales of Old Spice body wash have risen 55% and some SKUs are up as much as 1,900%.

McBeth spoke at the 140 Characters Conference in San Francisco August 19, detailing the success of the ad campaign featuring the chronically shirtless, no-longer-struggling actor Isaiah Mustafa starring as “The Man your Man Could Smell Like.” The campaign, which landed this year’s Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial, obviously targeted men by way of the women in their lives. And it worked like a charm. It featured a television ad and numerous YouTube videos wherein Mustafa answers fan questions – including one from ABC newsman George Stephanopoulos on how President Obama could reconnect with female voters (928,468 views at the time of this posting). As of the time of the conference the campaign had received 1.5 billion impressions since its February launch, including 130 million video views. Old Spice Twitter followers were up 3200%, Facebook interactions had jumped 800-1,000%, Google searches were up 2,200% and traffic to the Old Spice website had risen 350-500%.

Mustafa, a former NFL wide receiver, is fielding film and TV offers. He has signed on for a leading role in Madea’s Big Happy Family, the newest installment in Tyler Perry’s Madea Franchise which started with Diary of a Mad Black Woman; and in a role in Horrible Bosses alongside Jennifer Anniston, Jason Bateman, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx. He’ll also appear in the NBC TV series Chuck.

While we can’t promise an Emmy Award or film roles with A-list costars, AppSoft Web Design can help boost your company’s sales with a professionally produced commercial or PSA and / or a targeted social media campaign. Developed specifically for search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), our social media campaigns include management of your company’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn presences, plus keyword-rich blogging that will drive web viewers to your site and new customers to your click or brick stores. To find out how you can leverage the same tactics as the Old Spice Guy, contact Devan Stuart or Rachel Kuncicky at 904-241-9777 or 800-736-9112.

Once upon a time, search engine optimization (SEO) worked on a few proven techniques heavy on keyword placement and links. For the savvy web marketer, these few steps could place a website atop Google and other search engine rankings relatively easily, generating traffic and sales. No more. Today’s SEO is a much more complex animal with more factors playing important roles in the success of online businesses and ecommerce sites. The three most critical factors in the transformation of SEO over the past few years are the need for high quality content, social media and online video.

High Quality Content: One-time keyword stuffing works in SEO today like your mother’s 8-track cassettes work on your MP3 player. It simply doesn’t. Both search engines and live visitors today look for well-written and informative content, including website copy and blogs, that makes their visit to a site worthwhile. They want information and details that are updated regularly. Nothing will send a web visitor elsewhere quicker than recognizing a static site that hasn’t offered anything new in months.

Social Networking: Social networking websites have made such an impact that the words “Facebook me” are replacing “email me” among not just friends but business associates as well. Tens of thousands of businesses today use social networking profiles to more easily communicate with their audiences, grow their audiences and drive those audiences to their main websites and into their stores. A social media presence helps boost customer satisfaction by offering a perceived closeness to an actual individual than does an email form on a company’s primary website or a 1-800 number that takes customers through a maze of recordings and dial options before reaching someone who can listen and help. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter also help companies monitor the “buzz” about their products and services and tailor their overall marketing campaigns accordingly.

Online Video: Companies increasingly are using online video for SEO, informational, instructional and promotional purposes.  Once expensive and difficult to produce, high-quality video now is possible with affordable equipment and minimal training. Even a simple video, optimized appropriately, can help boost a company’s SEO ranking. Commercials, infomercials, how-tos and client testimonials all are effective ways to use online video to boost SEO efforts for online businesses.

AppSoft Development, headquartered in Jacksonville Beach, FL with operations in Orlando and California, can help improve your company website’s SEO with regularly updated, high quality, keyword optimized content and management of your social media profiles. Our in-house production team can write, shoot and edit your online video as well. To bring your SEO efforts up to date, contact AppSoft Development at 800-736-9112.

If you’re an online retailer and you have yet to log into the social media world, you’re undoubtedly missing out on a flood of new customers and revenue. According to a recent study by ForeSee Results titled The Key to Driving Retail Success with Social Media: Focus on Facebook, 69 percent of all online shoppers use a social media site. Of them, more than 80% are on Facebook – the dominant social media powerhouse that boasts more than 500 million users.

The study polled nearly 10,000 visitors to the biggest e-retail websites nationwide. Among the key findings on social media and online retailing:

• 56% of shoppers to top e-retail websites who interact with social media websites have elected to “friend” or “follow” or “subscribe” to a retailer on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This means that shoppers are choosing to engage in relationships with retailers via social media sites.
• 49% of respondents who “friend” or “follow” companies through social media do so to learn about special deals and options.
• 45% of users friend or follow companies to learn about products.
• Only 5% use social media primarily for customer support.

Of the online shoppers who regularly use social media sites:

• 81% use Facebook
• 31% use YouTube
• 22% use MySpace
• 16% use Twitter
• 12% use LinkedIn

An effective social media strategy drives new and existing customers to your main website, where visits turn into sales. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace facilitate the long-recognized top marketing tool — word of mouth advertising. Happy customers tell their friends about your company via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn friend and fan suggestions. And research continues to bear out the fact that a friend’s recommendation is a top factor in purchasing decisions. YouTube is a great spot for visual messages including commercials, infomercials, customer testimonials and how-to or instructional videos that showcase your company’s products and services.

Not convinced? Let AppSoft Web Design show you how a carefully crafted social media campaign can boost your website traffic and online sales. We offer multiple social media management, blogging and SEO/SEM packages tailored to fit any budget, whether you’re a mom-and-pop operation or a large company with hundreds of employees. Contact Devan Stuart or Rachel Kuncicky at 904-241-9777 or toll-free at 800-736-9112.

The rumor mill is churning about Google Me, Google’s much speculated social network. Word on the street is that the search engine giant is close to announcing the launch of the nation’s next big name in social networking, designed to be a full-on competitor to Facebook.

Thus far, there’s no official confirmation from Google’s Mountain View, CA corporate office. But Digg CEO Kevin Rose and former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo among other insiders claim Google Me is indeed coming down the pike.

“This is not a rumor. This is a real project. I am completely confident about this,” D’Angelo said in a recent post on Quora, the Q&A site he founded. “They realized that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook. Unlike previous attempts (before Buzz at least), this is a high-priority project within Google. They had assumed that Facebook’s growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn’t be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn’t stop, and now they are really scared.”

If the rumors are true, Google has quite a challenge on its hands, particularly considering the limited success of Buzz (Google’s answer to Twitter) and Orkut, Google’s first social networking experiment that proved popular in India and Brazil but never took off in the U.S. Facebook today is 500 million users strong, having toppled MySpace as the world’s most popular social networking site in April 2008. Google Me’s success could mean a strong new player in not only the social networking arena, but in SEO and SEM as well. A spectacular failure, however, might make Facebook even stronger.

Incidentally, Google Me is said to be the social network’s working title. No word on whether it was inspired by “Google Me,” the 2009 documentary by filmmaker Jim Killeen, starring seven other guys named Jim Killeen.

It’s difficult to accurately document history as it is being made, especially when it changes overnight. If you’ve been involved in search engine marketing over the past ten years, then you’ve already seen a lot of change. In fact, you’ve likely come to expect it. When Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs recently announced his company’s change in direction regarding the support of Flash video on iPhone applications, many bloggers jumped at the chance to announce the “Death of Flash”. Fortunately, sensationalized headers and tags don’t tell the real story.

The real story is more likely engulfed in very boring legal issues between major companies that battle every day for billions of dollars in market share. The truth is portable computer devices have always had an eternal need for longer-lasting, faster-charging batteries. The truth is Apple has historically announced its intentions to follow the beat of a different drummer. The truth is Adobe Flash has already earned its rightful place in web history. After all, without the magic of easy-to-program Flash applications, the Internet might still be a static world of glorified print-style advertising pages.

Since the mid-1990s, Flash software applications have provided web programmers with the tools they needed to make business websites appealing, easier to use and much more interactive. So, long before Google became the “Sultan of Search” and over ten years prior to Apple’s introduction of the iPhone, Adobe Flash was already a valuable asset for corporate and e-commerce websites worldwide. An object-oriented language on a multimedia platform that allowed millions of self-trained programmers to manipulate graphics and stream audio or video files.

Now, over fifteen years later, Adobe is releasing Flash 10.1, which is primarily aimed at mobile device partners like Android, BlackBerry, Palm webOS, Windows Phone 7, LiMo, MeeGee and Symbian smart phones . . . almost every major player except the Apple iPhone. Although Google has announced their intentions to switch their YouTube mega-video site from Flash to HTML5, it is obvious the mobile division of Google still plans for their smartphones to remain flexible in displaying web content. However, that too may be more of a marketing decision considering the enormous number of existing websites that display Flash components.

As for historical significance, only time will tell who the winners and losers were, but that’s true for every release or new version of any developer’s software. In fact, the big winner in the mobile market for web applications may not even exist at this time. Once dominant computer software companies like Ashton Tate and Lotus 1-2-3, are only a fading memory of what was. But, don’t count Adobe or their “Hall of Fame” software out of the game just yet. A desktop version of Flash 10.1 and a gazillion loyal users may still have a lot to say about how this chapter in Internet marketing history ends.

You may already be familiar with the term Google “Sandbox”. In fact, you may be one of the millions of users who assume any major drop in SERP rank means your website has been sent to Google’s sandbox for an indefinite period of time. If the picture in your mind resembles the penalty box used in ice hockey where stripped-shirt referees send your website to sit out for a specified period of time, then you’ve likely been misled by SEO folklore.  Although Google seems to have many ways of punishing those “unforgiven” websites that repeatedly ignore published Webmaster directives, in the truest sense, a website sent to the Sandbox is one that is too new and still has too many loose ends to be properly indexed (or ranked).

Google’s motivations for creating the Sandbox were most likely based on the search engine’s desire for returning relevant search results, managing the amount of time their algorithms spend indexing your site and reducing the amount of bandwidth used to crawl millions of web pages. When the spiders find discrepancies such as broken links, bad sections of code or other situations where the algorithms can’t get do their job in a timely manner, Google uses filters (not the traditional Sandbox) to impose a “penalty” of sorts by assigning your website to a supplemental directory. Such actions seem to be an effective way for the search engine giant to let Webmasters know they need to “fix it”, regardless of what “it” is.

Although nothing is ever cast in stone and Google rarely admits to what they are actually doing at any given time, a good rule of thumb is to look at where your website ranked in the SERPs and where it ranks now. For example, if your site previously ranked 5th on page 1 and you suddenly drop to 5th on page 3, chances are you received a 30-point penalty. An experienced SEO analyst can often use this information as a valuable clue in determining what may have triggered the algorithms to take punitive actions. There also appears to be supportive evidence of a 50-point penalty that may be imposed if Google finds a webmaster using certain over-optimization techniques for a website. Conversely, some experts say a 90 position drop in rank is a definitive red flag issued for using “Black Hat” techniques to unfairly direct web traffic to a site.

Where the online transaction of business is involved, what really matters most is a timely response to any sudden drop in SERP rank. Whether Google’s spiders found suspicious external links or stumbled upon embedded formatting with text copied from a word processor, identifying the discrepancies and taking the most appropriate corrective actions is always the best next step. If the search engine algorithms are ignoring your website or you’ve noticed a fall in the SERPs, it’s a good time to call a professional Search Engine Optimization firm for assistance. At AppSoft Web Design and Orlando SEO World, we have the experience and expertise to create an action plan to get your online business back on track. Give us a call today at (904) 241-9997 to speak directly with a PRO about your problem.

This year the month of June has become the “Silly Season” for the Internet world with major players, like Google and Microsoft or Apple and Adobe, actively competing for media attention and the web’s spotlight. Although no one upstairs is talking free agency or salary caps, high tech companies are jumping in-and-out of bed with each other faster than soap opera stars on daytime television. So, are we suppose to believe that Google has just realized Microsoft software is vulnerable to being hacked or that Apple suddenly discovered Flash files consume energy?

Come on! There’s seldom a single reason for any split or separation but there is typically the straw that broke the camel’s back. In the case of Google, the fact that the search engine giant was hacked in China due to a flaw in Microsoft’s Internet browser would seem to be that straw. At least, that’s what Google said. It is true the Chinese used a “worm hole” in IE6 to gain access to personal data about anti-government activists, but is that the real reason for Google’s in-house ban of Windows? In business, they always say: “If you’re looking for the truth, follow the money”.

So how do the dollars and cents stack up? Let’s see. There are roughly 20,000 employees at Google meaning the company pays Microsoft a fair amount of money in licensing fees for using their Windows product. Then again, millions of business users also have to pay to use what has become the most popular piece of software in computer history. Chances are those same users also know about the Microsoft browser’s security issues and previous email attacks. Does this mean everyone is going to buy a Mac or convert his or her PC to Linux? Probably not, at least not anytime soon.

Chances are quite a few Google employees already use Mac OS because of the technological advantages of the Apple for doing certain tasks. Moreover, Google reportedly said, ” . . all new employees would be allowed to choose between Mac OS or Linux”, so we really don’t know how many workers at Google will still be working in Windows every day. In addition, Google’s decision to change operating systems might have more to do with forcing their employees to use Google’s beta operating system than it had to do with security issues in the Far East. After all, it has to be time for somebody at Google to start debugging the OS software or the company will have problems of their own.

As for the privacy issues in China, Google or any other media operating on the Chinese mainland is going to have to play by Communist rule. The government is just not interested in granting freedom of speech in exchange for search engine result pages. In fact, Kai-Fu Lee, President of Google Greater China,  outlined several business challenges that Google currently faces.  During his recent lecture at Carnegie Mellon University, he pointed out that the average age of an Internet user in China is twenty years younger than in the United States; the software piracy rate is 96%; there are 2 credit cards for every 100 people; and China has approximately 2.5 times the number of mobile phone users, and most have never touched a PC.

Only time will tell what impact Google’s decision to drop Microsoft’s Windows will have on either company’s bottom line. Maybe this means Google has left the door wide open for Bing to take over organic search in China, after all, MSN has been there since 2004 and ranks second as a provider of instant messaging services. On the other hand, maybe Google just discovered what Yahoo, AOL, eBay and Amazon had already learned from their disappointing business ventures with the Chinese. Regardless, it seems less likely that Google stopped using Windows because of Asian hackers and more likely the Sultan of Search is positioning products for future market share.

There has never been a more confusing medium than the World Wide Web. As a conscientious business manager, chances are you’ve kept up with how traditional marketing is accomplished using print media, radio and television. After all, there are dozens of publications dedicated to making certain you stay informed of the best approach for advertising your products and services. Unfortunately, when most of us try to make heads or tails of Search Engine Marketing, we find the Internet is overrun with ambiguous and often contradictory information about “what to do” and “what not to do”. In many instances, businesses fail to take advantage of online opportunities out of fear their website might be permanently penalized due to mistakes they might make in ignorance.

The bad news is many of the horror stories you may have read about did happen. The good news is Google doesn’t have a lot of interest in becoming the Gestapo for the web world. In fact, most of the severe penalties handed out by the Sultan of Search were likely well deserved. It may seem ridiculous that a definitive book hasn’t been written to outline the exact details for Internet Marketing success but the truth is such a book would be out of date before it could reach the shelves of your favorite store. Search Engine Marketing is truly an evolving medium that has never followed the conventional phases of media development. With that in mind, the purpose of this article will be to de-mystify the most basic principle of organic search and to discuss simple steps that will help Google’s spiders (algorithms) find your website, index the content and determine your site’s rank on their result pages.

Google’s guru of spam defense, Matt Cutts, has always said, “Just tell us what it is that you do”. That sounds simple enough but companies who write their own web copy often forget to include the “key” words that customers are most apt to use when searching for information about their products and services. This is the first critical error. The second critical error comes when in-house writers fail to check the monthly search volume for the keywords that they intend to use in the site’s web copy. Since we don’t speak the same as we write, the same popular words or industry terminology a consumer uses in person or over the phone may be quite different than those used when typing into a search box online. You can do your own keyword research using Google’s free keyword and Adwords tools. Start by making a list of short phrases (two to four words in length) that describe what you do and/or what you sell.

Keep it simple. Users seldom use fancy phrases or cool lingo when they type search strings. There is also a tendency for users to avoid words that are difficult to spell or long words with lots of letters. On the other hand, search engines are becoming user friendly for queries entered as questions and search strings based on specific product names or model numbers. In the beginning don’t bother with elaborate keyword strategies for identifying untapped web traffic. Instead, make certain your web copy has a nice sprinkling of the words that you believe your customers will use when searching for your products and services. Then, use the free resources available to check that these words have adequate monthly search volumes. For most business applications, probably two dozen keyword phrases will be more than enough to get started.

Provided your website loads quickly, has good information and is easy for users to navigate, chances are very good that both the spiders and humans will like it. If you do not have the expertise to write your own original web copy, you should consider using a professional web design or search engine optimization firm. In the long run, it will save you a lot of time and money. Plus, most copywriters are very familiar with interpreting keyword research and know which search strings are most effective when used for web pages, articles or blogs. Don’t let confusing web articles keep you from pursuing business opportunities online. Give AppSoft a call today at (904) 241-9777 to speak directly with a Search Engine Optimization specialist about your specific marketing needs.

It’s been just over a week since its launch and the new Facebook “Like” button has proven a new force majeure in online search. The new button replaces the “Become a Fan” button and allows Facebook’s 400 million members to recommend websites, news stories, blog posts and music to friends. As of Wednesday, more than 50,000 website had implemented the new Like plugins as part of their web marketing strategies, according to Facebook’s blog for application developers.

What does this mean for your website and web marketing? By placing the Facebook Like button on your website, you allow visitors to recommend your site to their Facebook friends, who likely will pass it along to other Facebook friends and so on. These recommendations, which show up as posts on Facebook profiles, drive traffic back to your website, significantly boosting your web marketing efforts at little or no cost.

Consider that in March – after just six years in existence – Facebook surpassed Google as the site with the most U.S. visits; that Facebook today is the top source for traffic to major news and entertainment portals; and that the phrase “Facebook me” is replacing “E-mail me,” according to many entrepreneurs. If your company has yet to integrate Facebook and other top social networking platforms into its web marketing strategy, you are missing out on an already huge web marketing opportunity that is expected to grow exponentially and give search engine giant Google a run for its money, many Internet experts say.

Successful use of social media as a web marketing tool for your company involves much more than simply creating a static fan page or profile. The key to success is in consistent updating, promotion and interaction with your fan/friend base.  Many smaller companies are unsure how to most effectively use Facebook and other social media platforms, and many more find they simply lack the time or human resources to consistently manage their social media marketing efforts. AppSoft Web Design’s web marketing professionals know all the ins and outs of a highly successful social media campaign. We offer management of your social media web marketing efforts including creating and maintaining Facebook, Twitter and MySpace pages, YouTube channels and blogs with search engine optimized entries. If you’re ready to take full advantage of the social media web marketing phenomenon, call AppSoft Web Design’s Devan Stuart or Rachel Kuncicky at 904-241-9777 or toll free at 800-736-9112.

For Super Bowl advertisers, major plays in the big game are moving from the TV screen to the computer screen, proving that internet marketing via social media is an ever-intensifying factor in winning customers and sales for any company that wants to succeed today and into the future. Budweiser, a consistent favorite among Super Bowl advertisers turned to its Facebook fans to give the final green light on its Super Bowl commercial. Via a tab labeled “Game Day Pick,” Fans viewed clips of three potential commercials: One outlining the scenarios in which it’s appropriate to compensate a friend with a beer; another offering various tactics for getting a bartender’s attention; and the third starring the beloved Budweiser Clydesdale horses. It was no surprise either to marketers or longtime beer fans that the Clydesdales rumbled forward, winning by a long shot.

The ploy helped build Budweiser’s Facebook fan base. A Facebook user had to sign up as a fan in order to participate (Facebook forbids advertising of alcoholic beverages to underage users). When the company announced the contest on January 29, it had fewer than 135,000 fans. Today, that number is at nearly 270,100, meaning that Budweiser doubled its Facebook fan base with just one week-long promotion.

Other advertisers incorporated social media factors into their Super Bowl commercials and campaigns as well. In the two weeks prior to Super Bowl, Coca-Cola announced shortly before Super Bowl that Facebook fans would be able to send friends a virtual Coca-Cola, an image of a Coke bottle displayed on their Facebook pages and newsfeed along with a 20-second sneak peek of one of Coca-Cola’s two Super Bowl commercials. The company also donated one dollar to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America for each virtual gift sent. Pepsi, a faithful Super Bowl advertiser for the past 23 years, announced earlier this year it would forego a TV commercial altogether. Rather than pony up the average $3 million per 30-second slot, the company announced it would instead launch an online social networking campaign.

Perhaps the biggest benefit social media lends to advertisers is an instant gauge of how well received their commercials were among viewers. Mullen, an advertising agency with offices in Boston, New York, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Winston-Salem partnered with Twitter to measure Super Bowl commercials’ effectiveness via viewer tweets. More than 98,600 tweeting participants levied their opinions. Combining their comments with ad reviews and other metrics, Mullen declared Doritos, Google and Focus on the Family tops among Super Bowl advertisers.

The face of the advertising and marketing environment is changing rapidly. Consumers demand and expect interactivity, and only those who are fully engaged in the most effective online social media platforms will succeed in the coming years. AppSoft Web Development offers social media services for all clients. We can set up and maintain your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn pages, building your fan and contact base and posting status updates designed to boost interest in your company’s products and services. We also offer blogging services – monthly blogs of 200 words or more written by a professional copywriter and based on your company’s keywords and monthly SEO reports. Tiered pricing levels assure quality social media and blogging services at a price any size business can afford. For more information, call Rachel Kuncicky or Devan Stuart at 904-241-9777.