Did everyone see that update on your Facebook “Home” the other day? 100 million active users on Facebook, and no, this is not an Austin Powers reference. This social networking platform has consumed a population that is one-third the size of the United States. The more amazing part of this new fact is the “active users” part. This number does not include those fly by night posers that just sign up for an account and never return to that beautiful blue bar again. Now, what if we took a little liberty and substituted the word “users” with the word “viewers.” Suddenly we all see the dollar signs.



Think about the demographic that Facebook has captured. Traditional advertising has been fighting for this culture group for years. Want middle to upper class, 18-24 year olds? They’re on Facebook, and it makes sense when in fact the Facebook creator and world’s youngest billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg, is only 24 years old. You might say that he speaks their language.

So what does this have to do with us, Internet marketers? This is obviously a major platform for exposure to one of the most impressionable and profitable demographics online. Time magazine even discovered that Facebook is more popular than porn with college students. How is that even possible?

So how do you get the stage for this audience?

Facebook advertisment is certainly one way to approach it. These have proven to be some of the most successful ad campaigns in the history of social networking (which I suppose is not that long). Every user has a “Home” page that gives them news and updates about their various friends, updates on Facebook changes, as well as short little ads. The most successful of these ads are the ones that make announcements about new products or offer some kind of update for users. You will also find image and text ads on the right side of profile pages, specifically targeted for certain demographics. In fact, in the Facebook ad creation form, you can actually designate the age group you would like to reach, where they are from, and specific keywords that might be found in their profiles. This is truly amazing ad control.

Also, most online marketers have long realized the importance of viral participation in major social networking communities. This is an excellent way to get your brand in front of target markets without beating them over the head with advertisement language. Company Facebook profiles and groups can accumulate quite a following, especially if there is useful or interesting information being posted, videos being uploaded, or other incentives for users. Most Internet marketers have barely tapped the surface of creating a Facebook presence but have already realized results. Facebook can produce citations/references, brand awareness, community interaction, and yes, even links.

If your company is not involved on Facebook, I hope these numbers give you a kick in the pants to get started. Take it step by step. There is no need to be afraid. Start by signing up and creating a profile, NOW!


About the Author: Peter Hamilton is the Project Manager in charge of the Seattle office of ArteWorks SEO. His interest and experience in search engine marketing is largely focused on the social media optimization and multi-media facets of exposure. To learn more about search engine optimization, visit www.arteworks.biz.

Well so am I! I guess I am a little behind the wagon train because I just signed up on this recent addition to Google’s bag of tricks. A “knol” as defined by Google is a “unit of knowledge.” Of course, I am a bit unclear about what a “unit” of knowledge really means and if it is supposed to be a metric or US unit, but nonetheless, it is some type of unit. Upon visiting knol.google.com, I signed up for my own profile, for which I was then required to verify over the telephone. It felt like I was sucked into that early 90’s movie Sneakers - “my voice is my passport, verify me,” though I am not comparing myself to Robert Redford in any way. Once I was in and all verified up, I was then allowed to write my very first Knol, and how exhilarating it was to create my very own “unit of knowledge.”

As the initial excitement began to wear off, I found myself quite familiar with this Wikipedia style content submission, the main difference being less focus on terminology and definitions and more on full articles with unique titles. Just like Wikipedia however, other users can comment on and amend the submissions of other users. The idea being that information will continue to be revised and updated to provide the best information to readers.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that anchortext links are quite welcome and encouraged by the edit html tool found on the editing page for any knol. So of course I tossed in a link back to me and a few others to various sites I think worthy, so I guess we’ll see what that does. I was also able to add “bio” to my profile, which also included some anchortext, but the interesting thing is that this bio is also considered a knol. I suppose my life story (not really) is at least a unit or two of knowledge. You never know what you might be asked on in the final round of Jeopardy.

Since the creation over eight months ago, Google’s knol has gained a bit of press in search engine circles. Various SEO’s have run experiments to see how the mother ship search engine treats this little toddler finding some pretty interesting results. It seems as though Google tends to give it some preferential treatment when it comes to ranking content from the Knol versus identical content posted previously on other websites. David Utter talked about this yesterday on a Web Pro News Blog. Personally I don’t see too much of a problem with it. They have been giving the same preferential treatment to their other services like adwords, analytics, blogging, and email for years, as do all of the other search engines.

By and large, I think this is a very interesting new space to explore, and I certainly plan on contributing quite regularly. I think Google is on the right track by introducing some more user generated spaces. The social media trend continues to grow, and they should continue to think of new ways to join the game in order to stay on top.

About the Author: Peter Hamilton is the Project Manager in charge of the Seattle office of ArteWorks SEO. His interest and experience in Internet marketing is largely focused on the social media optimization and multi-media facets of exposure. To learn more about reputation management and this search engine optimization firm, visit www.arteworks.biz.

Yet another conflict arose at this year’s SMX Advanced here in Seattle, WA. Just a short jaunt from my home in Seattle, I was pleased to have a bit of controversy in my own backyard. Jay Young, of Link Fish Media stepped up to the “Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques” session, intending to do just that. Among other “brass balls” techniques, Jay is a hearty advocate of Paid Links, suggesting that it is a perfectly legitimate marketing method and that SEO’s and small businesses should not be afraid of Google’s iron fist.

The Google Fist himself, Matt Cutts, later took the stage in a session called “You and a Session with Matt Cutts,” in which he proceeded to morally challenge the likes of Jay Young by questioning who wants to be in an industry like that. Unfortunately for Matt, it seems we are already very much in an industry like that, and I don’t know about you, but my arm was never twisted. To me it is almost like asking who would want to live in a world where money equaled power or sex sells products. The fact of the matter is that money does produce success, especially in marketing. Saying it is not fair for a company to purchase links for the sake of their online visibility is like saying it isn’t fair that one restaurant has a great location and atmosphere and therefore gets all of the traffic, while the taco shack on the corner has much better food (not a perfect analogy I know, but you get the point). In a perfect world the Internet, and all search engines associated with it, would remain unbiased and reflect only the best, most relevant content. But even then we have a problem. The “best” is always subjective, and the “most relevant” content is certainly an opinion. Historically, we have always been told what is best by the government or the church, but mainly by big business. Themz the cold hard facts of life, and it will be no different for the Internet, unfortunately.

So while it may seem unjust or shallow, you must ask yourself the question, “do I want to play the game?” Perhaps this whole world of business is just too cutthroat, too self seeking, and too unfair. If that is the case, any type of marketing or profit seeking venture is probably not the best place for you. May I remind everyone that all of the major engines make a great deal of their profits directly from link sales. Anyone paying for Adword links? How are search engines exempt? Besides, buying and selling links can also produce a healthy dose of commerce and help people find already trusted companies who have achieved great financial success. In a funny way, bought links can actually produce better content for the web. Just as paid advertisement has allowed for the creation of some of the world’s greatest news stations, films, and television shows, so can link selling provide a great incentive for producing excellent web content.

Officially, ArteWorks SEO does not participate in link buying or selling, but I am not going to judge another for participating in what seems to me to be a perfectly natural way of doing business. Though I love the idea of a pure search engine that only brings me the best content and a world where all people help others before themselves, I am faced with the reality that not everyone is going to promote my business for me or give me the shirt off their back. I have to agree with Jay that this is marketing, not morality. The day I see Yahoo pages ranking in the top results on Google, and visa versa, perhaps I will give this some more thought. For now, I will call it a difference in ethical opinion in which both sides have their flaws.

About the Author: Peter Hamilton is the Project Manager in charge of the Seattle office of ArteWorks SEO. His interest and experience in Internet marketing is largely focused on the social media and multi-media facets of exposure. To learn more about this search engine optimization company, visit www.arteworks.biz.

One of today’s hottest topics for Internet marketing is “the future of search engine technology.” I received an earful of speculation from SMX West in Santa Clara, and you can find some mention of the subject in almost every SEO blog, forum, or website. Obviously the future of search engine technology will greatly impact the marketing and optimization infrastructure that has developed in recent years, so there is certainly cause for consideration, but the basic concepts of web marketing and search engine optimization will never change. Yes, there are always old tricks or new tricks that can manipulate the system for a short while, but a real SEO campaign should stand independent of shifts in algorithms or technology.

With that in mind, there are some exciting new ideas entering the conversation about the future search experience, and in order to understand why these concepts are developing, it is important to know how people search. The three basic types of searches are find, discover, and explore searches. "Find" searches are considered short sessions that have very specific questions, such as local listings, stocks, directions, etc, while a "discover" searches have the same clear need with a less specific answer in mind. These searches might look like shopping for a new car. Yes, the searcher knows they are looking for a car, but they spend any number of hours researching and searching for the right one. Finally, an "explore" search has no real answer or target in mind but seeks only to browse various subjects. The future of search will be entirely defined by these basic search types.

Search engines are still quite weak in terms of "find" searches. When searching for something very specific, there may be thousands of results and no real way to specify further. For this reason, the idea of personal search has surfaced, where the engine would learn through various means what types of results certain users are typically seeking. So when a construction contractor searches for “windows” he will come up with glass windows instead of the operating system.

Rankings determined by user interaction are another possibility for the future. In this case, the amount of times users choose particular sites from search rankings would be recorded and totaled to prove which sites are most valuable to the rankings. There has even been talk of artificial intelligence for search engine use. With artificial intelligence, search crawlers would actually read and interpret text, comprehend video content, and even analyze photographs. With this futuristic technology, the search index could be extremely accurate, providing the best, genuine content, and it might not be that far away.

Search engine technology is an extremely exciting field, providing information from millions of sources to people around the world. The information is out there, and the engines are in place, now it is only a question of improving those engines to make access to information as simple and seamless as possible.


About the Author: Peter Hamilton is the Project Manager in charge of the Seattle office of ArteWorks SEO. His interest and experience in Internet marketing and search engine optimization is largely focused on the social media and multi-media facets of exposure. To learn more about search engine optimization, visit www.arteworks.biz.

The value of social media is no secret to this year’s United States Presidential Candidates. Beyond the beautifully designed, Web 2.0 websites of candidates like Obama, McCain, and Clinton lie incredible social media infrastructures that are fully developed and extremely connected. In fact, most SEO’s have a thing or two to learn from these intense Internet marketing campaigns. Some existing for only a year, they have accomplished more than many businesses have ever considered, and thus social media makes history as a powerful player in the Presidential race.

For starters, every candidates’ website has buttons or links to multiple social media sites for bookmarking or social profiles. Check out the bottom of Hillary Clinton’s Website at hillaryclinton.com. There you find links to Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, Flickr and Eons profiles, each of which are thoroughly developed and active. Her Flickr page is studded with outstanding photos that are titled and tagged, her MySpace page is customized and has over 186,000 friends, and her Youtube channel is enormous. There are currently 264 videos posted!

Obama is no stranger to the online community either. Notice at the bottom right of his campaign website (barackobama.com) a fairly extensive link list of social media connections. These include the sites mentioned on the Clinton site as well as Digg, Twitter, Eventful, LinkedIN, Faithbase, Glee, BlackPlanet, and more. These candidates are taking the social networking world by storm in a way that is unique to our modern times, executing social media strategies that have SEO’s drooling. Their efforts are explosive but honest and real at the same time, and I don’t see any black hat operations going on here.

Part of the reason these types of social media campaigns are so successful is that they are not overly burdened with the need to build links and get noticed on the search engines. They are using social media largely as an intensive viral marketing strategy with the goal of saturating political, social, and economic channels with content. Presidential candidates are more concerned with branding and image than how they rank for particular keyphrases, and as a result their online presence is huge, subsequently showing some impressive search engine rankings as well.

Now, I know that they also have incredible budgets. However, many of the avenues they are using are free, the only cost being a knowledgeable social media teams to organize and execute the campaigns. Compared to paying for network television commercials or spreads in national magazines, social media costs are minuscule, and if you don’t think social media can have a huge impact on the success of your business, ask yourself, “Why are these political campaigns so invested in social media?” I guarantee you it is not just for kicks and giggles.

About the Author: Peter Hamilton is the Project Manager in charge of the Seattle office of ArteWorks SEO. He has a Bachelor's degree in radio, television and film and extensive experience in social media marketing. Mr. Hamilton also heads up the ArteWorks SEO educational video series on topics related to Internet marketing and search engine optimization.