Just last week, Twitter announced that it will be opening its self-serve advertising to any small business wanting to take advantage of this newer social media marketing tool. Although larger companies and more well-known brands have been reaping the rewards of that elusive promoted checkmark for some time now, those perks can now be enjoyed by smaller or entirely online businesses.

Let’s take a look at a few key points of this new venture from one of the most popular social platforms on the globe:

• Self-serve means companies can make electronic payments as needed rather than be invoiced or commit to a larger lump sum
• Bidding platform is based on per engagement
• Limited to customers in approximately 210 US markets for the first little while – later to be released into other markets

And what are some of the benefits of a Twitter Ad campaign?

First of all, it includes that elusive verified blue check mark, and promoted tweets that can be better targeted to suitable users that would find them interesting. The company can also get further data from followers to see who is actually engaging with the company. As an added bonus to this announcement, Twitter has partnered with American Express to give $100 worth of advertising to the first 10,000 eligible businesses that register, which may not have businesses joining the “Twitterati”, but could be a good start to Twitter Ad success.

To get more information, and read it straight from the little bird’s beak, you can read Twitter’s announcement on their blog here.

To learn more about the WSI team, the services we provide, client testimonials, upcoming webinars and white papers, contact WSI.

WSI Internet Marketing | Web Development
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Winter Park, FL 32789
Toll-Free: 888-697-5107

In order to obtain the maximum exposure from your posts and tweets, it is particularly important to identify when the majority of your audience is viewing your social networks. View the below infographic to learn more about the science of social timing.

Did you know that 5PM Eastern Time is the best time to create a tweet on Twitter?

Did you know that the best tweeting frequency is 1 to 4 tweets per hour?

Did you know that Saturday is the best day to share content on Facebook?

Did you know that 12pm (Noon Eastern Time) is the best time of the day to share content on Facebook?

Did you know that the best sharing frequency on Facebook is 3-4 posts per week?

To learn more about the WSI team, the services we provide, client testimonials, upcoming webinars and white papers, contact WSI.

WSI Internet Marketing | Web Development
520 N Orlando Ave Suite 205-A
Winter Park, FL 32789
Toll-Free: 888-697-5107

On February 12, 2012 PrivateChoice, LLC launched a new website www.privacyscore.com that makes it possible for users to estimate, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best), the privacy risk associated with giving a website your personal and behavioral information.

“Privacy risk”, according to PrivateChoice, is the chance that data about you will be used or shared in ways that you probably don’t expect.

Privacyscore measures this risk through nine different factors, each weighted based on importance. The factors include how the site promises to protect personal user data, as well as the privacy qualifications of tracking companies who collect data, weighted based on their share of the tracking events on the site. Currently the average score across all sites monitored is 70 out of a 100 possible points. The average privacyscore for top websites by category is as follows:

Privacy Policy Failures

Privacyscore believes that privacy policies have largely failed in informing web users about privacy risks. When you use privacyscore through a browser add-on, privacy awareness becomes part of your regular web routine. The tool enables users to identify risks and determine whether a site is being responsible in how it shares data with its advertisers, without having to read those long detailed privacy policies.

With privacyscores, web users also have the opportunity to contribute. The heart of their system is the mapping that is maintained between websites and the ecosystem of ad and data companies collecting cross-site data. When add-on users check the box to share tracking activity with the privacyscore system, they extend the breadth and depth of coverage.

Privacy Analytics

This new tool also establishes something that privacyscore is calling “Privacy Analytics,” which is applying quantitative techniques to the measurement and management of privacy risk. For the first time, publishers and advertisers have metrics to guide their decisions that affect user privacy. Publishers can also subscribe to privacyscore’s privacy analytics services to receive a more in-depth scanning of their site, privacyscore change alerts and more detailed analysis of third-party data collection on their site.

“For the first time, internet publishers and their users have a way to easily compare privacy practices across the Web,” said Jim Brock, the founder of PrivacyChoice, in a statement. “This transparency not only allows people to make smarter decisions about their own data, it also will spur more protective privacy practices by sites and tracking companies, which is long overdue.”

Users who visit privacyscore.com can search for Web sites they wish to have scored.
Users also can download a plug-in for their browsers that, when activated, will show a privacy score at the top of each Web site they visit.

To learn more about the WSI team, the services we provide, client testimonials, upcoming webinars and white papers, contact WSI.

WSI Internet Marketing | Web Development
520 N Orlando Ave Suite 205-A
Winter Park, FL 32789
Toll-Free: 888-697-5107

How many times have you visited a website from your cell phone only to find that the site isn’t formatted properly for cell phones? Well, it’s one of the greatest frustrations of mobile users while surfing the web. The solution is to closely monitor the number of visitors accessing your website via mobile devices. As you probably know, the mobile internet is exploding.

Today, mobile users’ expectations for a quality browsing experience is continuously increasing. Your visitors expect your website to be mobile friendly, and if it’s not they will go elsewhere.

It’s not too late. At least for now if your website is not mobile ready, the silver lining is that you’re actually in pretty good company. I say that respectfully because more than 70% of the top 1,000 websites rated by Alexa, do not perform well on mobiles devices. More than 80% of the top 500,000 websites don’t perform well, and incredibly of the 240 million websites worldwide, 98.75% do not perform well on a mobile device.

Mobile Friendly Website vs. Mobile Version of Website

Mobile Friendly Websites – Having a mobile friendly site for most businesses is an improvement, however the problem with mobile friendly websites is that most were created to be viewed on desktop PCs and navigated with a point and click mouse. Mobile users want their browsing experience to include the use of the basic functions of their phone, and since most visitors have larger fingers, condensing the site to fit on mobile devices is not providing your visitor with a comfortable user experience.

Mobile Version Websites – A mobile version is a website that is specifically designed for optimum performance when viewed on a small mobile device. Since there is a huge difference in the screen size of a mobile device compared to a computer, it only makes sense to change the look and feel of the site when viewed on a mobile device. Additionally, a mobile users purpose for surfing the internet is much different than someone surfing on a desktop PC. Creating a mobile version of your website addresses both of these striking differences.

Creating a Competitive Advantage

Creating a mobile version of your website enables you to connect better with your customers wherever they are at any given time. In today’s digital world, interacting with your customers is crucial to building long-term relationships. Investing in a mobile version website sends a message to your customers that you care and to your prospects that you are an modern company that believes in technology, thus enhancing your image within your industry.

The mobile web is growing at a phenomenal pace, and it’s forecasted to surpass the desktop web in 2014. By 2014 more users will access the internet using a mobile phone than a PC.

Did you know we create mobile version websites as low as $349? For more information about mobile version websites contact us today.

To learn more about the WSI team, the services we provide, client testimonials, upcoming webinars and white papers, contact WSI.

WSI Internet Marketing | Web Development
520 N Orlando Ave Suite 205-A
Winter Park, FL 32789
Toll-Free: 888-697-5107

In today’s rapidly changing digital world, email marketing has the potential to be an effective medium to share information, cultivate customer relationships, and build credibility. When executed correctly, email marketing offers unique capabilities allowing businesses to share specific messages to various groups of subscribers for much higher response rates.

Benefits of email marketing

The two greatest benefits of email marketing are its ability to target customers and its tracking capabilities. Email marketing systems allow you to categorize your subscribers on just about any criteria imaginable. This is important because the more relevant your message is to the recipient, the better your response will be. Interested in running promotion for subscribers in a specific ZIP code range? You can do that. How about sending a different message to male customers than to female customers? You can do that too. You can even get really creative and categorize customers based on the types of items they purchase and then notify them about the latest accessories, styles or models you carry. We can show you how to build this type of capability into your email advertising efforts quickly and easily.

Building a profitable list

We’ve found that most companies’ greatest challenge with email marketing is building their database of quality email subscribers. This is not only your greatest challenge but also should be your number online priority. Below is an action list of things you can do to help meet your database growth objectives.

Why is email marketing right for your business?

Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA) has been achieved at a relatively high price for decades through traditional channels such as radio, newspapers, television, magazines, and direct mail. Email marketing on the other hand has been a very inexpensive medium used to create TOMA over the past decade. The internet is making it easier and less expensive for companies to build customer loyalty, share information, and promote products and services.

With email, you can stay in touch with customers, thank them for their business, provide special discounts, and of course, encourage repeat purchases as well as offer complementary products and services. Remember, if you want their attention, you must earn it!

Today, email marketing systems allow you not only distribute information to your database but also allow you to publish it to your Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts. Also you can include share buttons in your email allowing subscribers to share it with their friends and family thus creating the potential for it to go viral.

However, even with all of the improvements and benefits of email marketing over the past few years, I am still frequently asked if it’s worth it. Many believe that social media is killing email. Don’t include me in that number… at least not anytime soon. My reasons are as follows.

Remember, email marketing should be looked at as a single component to your internet marketing portfolio. One component that is intertwined with other facets of your online marketing strategy. As I stated earlier, email marketing is not dead, and if done properly it can be an effective medium to share information, cultivate customer relationships, build credibility, and ultimately improve your bottom line.
For more information on how you can boost your online marketing efforts by implementing an effective email marketing campaign, contact us today.

To learn more about the WSI team, the services we provide, client testimonials, upcoming webinars and white papers, contact WSI.

WSI Internet Marketing | Web Development
520 N Orlando Ave Suite 205-A
Winter Park, FL 32789
Toll-Free: 888-697-5107

One of the easiest ways to determine how well your audience is engaging with your website is to review your bounce rate. After all, the bounce rate is calculated by the percentage of visitors that land on a page only to exit without visiting any other pages on your site. So, I guess it goes without saying that a high bounce rate is detrimental to the success of your website. Well, that’s not entirely true. Yes, a high bounce rate can be your website’s demise; however bounce rates will greatly vary depending on the type of page we’re analyzing.

If visitors find your website organically because they’re searching for information, then having a high bounce rate is probably disadvantageous. SEO is not easy and definitely not cheap. Remember, our goal here is to create highly optimized, content rich pages that feed visitors with as much information as possible. So, when you have customers land on your site and choose not to visit any of your other pages, the end result is a negative return on your investment. In addition to the bounce rate, metrics that are also important and should be monitored in this scenario are the number of pages viewed and the time a visitor spends on your site. On the other hand, if a visitor lands on your page from a sponsor ad and the page was created featuring offers and call to actions, then having a high bounce rate could actually be something positive. Your objective in this scenario is much different. When a visitor lands on your page, your goal is to get the offer noticed and then to convert (i.e. form submission, phone calls, etc.). Metrics such as the click-through rate (CTR) and goal conversions should be closely monitored in this scenario.

Knowledge is power and understanding the true definition of these key metrics is essential when processing your Google Analytics reports. This is especially true when analyzing custom reports created for the purpose of targeting underperforming landing pages, blog posts, etc. Examine bounce rates by keyword, search engine, and landing pages to gain greater knowledge as to why your bounce rates may be higher than the desired.

FACT: In the SEO community, many believe that the bounce rate is the rate of visitors on your site for less than X amount of seconds. This is simply not true.

Identifying the pages that you need to improve the bounce rate is the first step. Determine why the bounce rate is too high, and then create a goal and plan to reduce it. A visitor’s first impression along with your site’s ability to pull them in and keep them engaged is the key to reducing the bounce rate. We’ve identified a handful of the common website mistakes that result in higher bounce rate.

Annoying and Distracting Animation

As stated earlier, getting a visitor is not only difficult, but expensive. Don’t annoy them with disruptive audio, video, pop-up and fly-out advertisements and promotions. Instead, provide your visitors with a clean site layout with content that is well-organized. Animation should be kept to a minimum.

A Confusing and Unclear Message

Many visitors get frustrated because they can’t find what they want. How many times do you visit a site and the page is so confusing it’s easier to exit than to try and find what it is you’re searching? When a visitor enters your site, there should be no confusion as to your website’s purpose. Visitors don’t always expect to find what they’re searching for on the first page they land. But it’s critical for the visitor to understand quickly the purpose of your website and for the design and content to be appealing.

Why would anyone hang around on a website that’s difficult to read? Improving a site’s contrast is often overlooked, but can make a big difference in improving your bounce rate. Many of us have poor vision so try to make the site as easy to read as possible. Lighting conditions and screen resolutions vary greatly, so improving the contrast of a website can be an enormously powerful means for guiding your visitor to your desired location. Also, don’t lose your audience because your pages are too busy and cluttered. Understand your target audience, provide what they want, and make it easy for them to find it.

Difficult to Navigate

One of the biggest reasons visitors exit websites is because the site is difficult to navigate. This is becoming a huge issue with visitors using smart devices. More and more customers are using their cell phones and tablets to search the web. If your site is not mobile friendly than you are missing out on a tremendous opportunity. Have you ever tried navigating a website from your cell phone that is not mobile friendly? Navigation plays a huge part in improving the bounce rate of a website. Too many drop downs and not being able to easily return back to previous pages are big turn-offs to visitors.

The main navigation of your website must be extremely prominent. Robust websites should have a search feature as well as a site map enabling visitors to easily find information on their desired topic.

It’s also a good idea to duplicate the main navigation links on the footer of your website. This is especially important when your pages drop below the fold. Footer links allows visitors to easily navigate without always having to scroll back up to the top of the page.

Slow Third Party Plug-ins and Widgets

There are thousands of third party plug-ins and widgets on the market today. Most of which are excellent tools that can enhance your visitors’ website experience. However, like most things, too much of a good thing can be a detriment. The speed in which a page loads on your site is a key component of your bounce rate. The longer it takes for a page to load, the higher the bounce rate, and vice versa. Too many third party plug-ins and widgets will slow your site down, causing your visitors to exit.

Advertisements that Slap You in the Face

For the most part, unless your ads are extremely clever, no one wants to look at advertisements. I understand that for some, ads are a necessary evil, but please show some respect for your audience. Most ads on the web should be subtle for the purpose of obtaining impressions. Only a very, very small percentage of online ads will actually be clicked. If possible, display your ads below the fold and keep them to a minimum. Requiring your audience to scroll down to view your content because the top of your site is ad heavy will significantly increase your bounce rate.

10 Really Bad Online Display Ad Placements

The 22 Most Hilarious, Unfortunately Placed Ads Ever

What techniques are you using to improve your bounce rate? Please share your comments.

Improving your bounce rate is just one element of measuring your digital marketing strategy. To learn more about the WSI team, the services we provide, client testimonials, upcoming webinars and white papers, contact WSI.

WSI Internet Marketing | Web Development
520 N Orlando Ave Suite 205-A
Winter Park, FL 32789
Toll-Free: 888-697-5107

Technology behemoths Google and Wikipedia have been very successful rallying its users to fight the controversial SOPA and PIPA bills in the United States. Now, others from around the world are joining forces to protest and fight the treaty, (ACTA) Anti-Counterfeiting Trademark Agreement in Europe.

For more than a year now, 38 countries have been privately holding discussions that will in the end shape the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Unfortunately, the public is poorly informed about the current status of these negotiations. Numerous requests have been made, however access to the current drafts have been denied . The few pieces of information that have been leaked are not nearly enough to properly inform or educate the public about this topic. This secrecy has created a very insecure public that has the rumor mill churning.

About ACTA

The ACTA treaty is an agreement between nations that envelops a broad number of counterfeit digital and physical goods. Although many of its worst provisions have been heavily diluted, it still remains very troubling for various reasons. The most disturbing provision is that the agreement would make ISPs liable for copyright infringements carried out on their networks, paving way to the introduction of surveillance technology to help spy on the web activities of their customers. If a user is found to have shared files illegally, the treaty enables them, albeit after a series of warnings, to blacklist users from ISPs.

Current status of ACTA

On January 22, 2012, twenty-two European Union states, and the EU itself, signed the controversial treaty. The United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden all agreed to adopt ACTA.

What’s important is that ACTA has not been ratified yet by the countries that have joined. In fact, it’s not something that’s expected in the European Union for several months. Bottom line is that in order for the treaty to die, we need the European Parliament to reject it.

Protest Day

The organization, Access has declared this Saturday, February 11, 2012 the day in which people from across the globe will unite in “an unprecedented showing of solidarity” against ACTA.

More than 330K people thus far have signed the Anti-ACTA petition and Access has been notifying its online visitors of all protest events being held within their local area. Access is even asking the public via Facebook to help by creating your own protest locally on February 11th, and request to be added the organization’s list. To get involved and find out how you can act against ACTA, click here.

It’s also important to understand that our Congress is somewhat powerless in that they do not have a vote. If the treaty is ratified, it will create a completely new enforcement system and our government will not have the power to undo it.

An infographic is just one element of an entire digital marketing strategy. To learn more about the WSI team, the services we provide, client testimonials, upcoming webinars and white papers, visit our new website at www.wsib2b.com

WSI Internet Marketing | Web Development
520 N Orlando Ave Suite 205-A
Winter Park, FL 32789
Toll-Free: 888-697-5107
Contact WSI

Infographics are a great way to get links to your site and drive up traffic – but only when they’re done the right way.

Infograhics were all the rage last year. Although they’re losing a bit of steam, they can still be a great way to get traffic to your site. One of the biggest problems is making yours stand out in the crowd. Here are a few tips on how to add an infographic to your digital marketing strategy without losing sight of the important elements.

What Are Infographics?

Infographics are a combination of stats and information shown through pictures and graphs. There are words, but the main focus is that the topic is interesting and the infographic is very visually appealing. Infographics are a great example of SEO link bait and, if done correctly and is properly advertised, can bring in a fair amount of traffic to a site once others start sharing the content.

One of the main problems with infographics right now is that there are so many of them. The bar has definitely been raised, and readers are more apt to compare and critique. They’re great for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but can be a bad move for your reputation if done poorly. Remember: Content is still king.

Using Infographics The Right Way

Here are a few tips to keep you on the path to infographic success:

Avoid These Pittfalls:

With every “do” there are some “don’t’s”. Keep these tips “top-of-mind” when implementing your infographic strategy:

An infographic is just one element of an entire digital marketing strategy. To learn more about the WSI team, the services we provide, client testimonials, upcoming webinars and white papers, visit our new website at www.wsib2b.com

WSI Internet Marketing | Web Development
520 N Orlando Ave Suite 205-A
Winter Park, FL 32789
Toll-Free: 888-697-5107
Contact WSI

By now if you’re on Facebook you’ve probably seen the new profile called Timeline, which was made available to all users on December 15, 2011. Facebook is describing this new virtual space on their website as “Tell your life story with a new kind of profile.” The new interface was actually launched to developers for beta access in September 2011, and by the time it was available to all users in December they had more than a million people make the switch.

Timeline is a new virtual space that displays a users’ photos, videos, and posts and categorizes them according to the period of time in which they were uploaded or created. This new profile provides a more intuitive and comprehensible method of navigating through them.

Overall, I think Facebook hit a homerun. The new interface is very user friendly and much more aesthetically pleasing. It has incorporated some of the features that I really liked about MySpace. Regardless, if you like it or not, all Facebook users will be automatically migrated over within the next few weeks. On Tuesday, Facebook announced in a blog post …
” Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you’ll have 7 days to preview what’s there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it.”

Currently, Timeline is only available for personal pages. Facebook has hinted that Timeline may be available for brands at some point in the future, however the company has not announced anything explicitly.

Timeline Basics

Timeline has a completely new look and feel to it. As facebook describes, your profile tells your life story. The most noticeable difference is the large photo called the ‘cover’, which spans across the top of a user’s profile. As you scroll down, you will see all the major posts and events in a users’ life that occurred throughout the year. These posts include photos, places visited, pages liked, friend connections, and much more.

Users have the ability to add or remove events that occur in their timeline. Timeline has even incorporated an option to add events that occurred prior to joining Facebook as well as the ability to hide posts. Many users will find that this new feature is a great benefit in telling your life story.

Timeline privacy settings also allows users to manage who can view their entire profile. Similar to the “Wall”, friends have the ability to post messages on the user’s timeline.
Under the cover photo, there is a link titled ‘activity log’, which displays all activity by year only. Currently, if you want to see any activity on a specific date, users will have scroll.

Although I like the new look, as always, there are those that dislike it. Anytime Facebook makes a change there will always be those that feel it’s a disruption in their lives. But overall, the new Timeline has been well received. Currently, there are more than 1.9 million users that have “liked” the page introducing Timeline.

Also, apps are being made available by Facebook for users to integrate into their Timelines. This ties into the new Open Graph platform, which was launched in September 2011. According to Facebook, this platform is how they will launch new enhancements such as photos and places.

Currently, Open Graph has been made available to third party apps, including sixty new apps announced just a week ago. Some of these apps include the virtual pin board website, Pinterest. Spotify is another app that has been a smash hit, which allows users to share music and collaborate with their friends.

To learn more about the WSI team, the services we provide, client testimonials, upcoming webinars and white papers, visit our new website at www.wsib2b.com

WSI Internet Marketing | Web Development
P.O. Box 1597
Winter Park, FL 32790
Toll-Free: 888-697-5107
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Yesterday, the world’s most popular search engine announced that effective March 1, 2012 they would begin simplifying their privacy policy to make it easier to read and understand. Additionally, Google’s changing how they use information provided by users across more than 60 of their products. To get the message out, Google is informing the public via e-mail and on its various sites across the web.

Google Backlash

For the past few weeks, critics have been slamming Google for the way in which they integrated Google+ posts into their search results. The response from social networks Facebook and Twitter led to the “Don’t Be Evil” add-on for Web browsers which strips the Google+ information from a search result page. However, Google insists that yesterday’s announcement of changes have been in the works for some time and that recent events have nothing to do with the timing.

Nevertheless, the most significant change in these new policies are at the core of privacy concerns about Google’s new search feature. As you may or may not know, Google+ posts that appear in search results are only from people whom Google users have chosen to follow on Google Plus and who have shared specific items with them or made them public. Critics believe that infringes on a users’ privacy because when people post on Google+ they did not expect their posts to be displayed on search results. The revised privacy policy is very clear in that Google can use information shared on one service in other Google services while a user is logged into their Google account.

Specifically How the Revised Policy Works

A user that watches a video of a Disney movie premiere on YouTube may find a targeted advertisement for Disney theme park tickets when they log into their Gmail account. Also, Google could recommend that the user follows Yogurtland’s Google+ brand page after the user utilizes Google Maps to search for a nearby location of the popular yogurt chain. With user content like emails, Google+ posts, YouTube videos and search queries already being inserted into this sharing algorithm, users will in all likelihood see more amazingly relevant Google AdSense placements across the internet as well as intuitive suggestions when using other Google products.

These changes are significant in the way Google has been sharing information between products in the recent past, however it simplifies their method of rolling out new products and making changes to existing products. Honestly, this announcement is basically an admission of existing practices rather than some sort of significant shift in the company’s strategy. Peter Eckersley, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s technology project director, stated in USA Today that “It has always been the case that Google kept effectively linkable records of our uses of Gmail, Search, Maps and Market for Android, and other services. Only very sophisticated users have ever been able to remove any of that linkability, and that remains the case today.“

How do I opt-out?

Well, that’s the problem. Today it’s not possible to opt-out and continue using your account. Privacy experts are understandably concerned about Google’s refusal to allow a user to opt-out within this new policy revision. Effective March 1, 2012, all new users on any of the 60+ Google products will automatically be opted into this new sharing policy. Do we really understand the power of Google being able to collect information across platforms regarding your health, financial state, political beliefs, among others. No doubt, tracking users across all platforms will improve their services, however consumers should have the ability to opt out. According to their new policy, even children who are devoted users of YouTube, Gmail and Google Search will not be able to opt-out. The only method for opting out is to delete your account.

To learn more about the WSI team, the services we provide, client testimonials, upcoming webinars and white papers, visit our new website at www.wsib2b.com

WSI Internet Marketing | Web Development
P.O. Box 1597
Winter Park, FL 32790
Toll-Free: 888-697-5107
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