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When looking for ways to develop your business or even to keep it pertinent, there comes a instant when you realize that everyone is talking about social media.  Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, these have all gone from being simple names of websites to actual verbs that have become a part of the ordinary lingo.  Today, a hefty percentage of major businesses, organizations, and companies make use of social media as a way to advertise, create brand recognition, and update consumers.  When wondering if this may be right for your business, the truth is that it is hard to imagine a situation where it wouldn’t be.

Today’s culture is based largely around the notion of instant gratification.  If I want information, I expect to get it now, and if I want to learn about a company or business, I want the most relevant information possible rather than a website that has been the same for six months or more.   Customers no longer want to glance at your standard advertisement; they want to know what your business is up to right now, what your present offers are, and how you can meet their instant needs.  Social media is both the cause of and the solution to these needs.

When interacting through social media, you are creating a distinctive form of advertisement.  Every time you gain a follower and make a post or comment on their page, it is seen by all of their friends.  When these friends in turn add you to see your most recent postings, they are seen by each individual’s network of friends again, and the process branches out until a few posts are reaching thousands of people at once.  The use of a slogan or simple phrase on a network like Twitter that gains attention offers you the chance for your company name to quickly go viral, and the character limits ensure readers that they will never be subjected to drawn out advertisements.

For a few years now, it has been suggested that social media would be the marketing tool of the future.  While the trend is surely apt to continue to mature and expand, it is safe to say that this predicted future has already arrived.  Social media is the marketing wave of the present and has become a staple of success for thousands of companies. 

If your company has yet to create a strong presence on these type of social media networks, the time is now.

Trying to find fresh friends on Twitter? Twitter’s search doesn’t offer enough in the way of people search features, finding interesting people to follow could be very time consuming. Fortunately there are several quality Twitter directories that you can use to find new people to follow. Twitter directories are places to search and find new Twitter users to follow based on your own interests. Here is a list of 20 Twitter directories where you can search people with similar interests and where you can submit your Twitter profile to get more followers..

1. Analyst Twitter Directory. This is a directory of industry analysts that tweet. Big list and regularly updated.
2. First Issue. This is a directory of book publishers and others in the book trade who are using Twitter.
3. Geo Follow. GeoFollow allows you to list yourself geographically and categorically.
4. GovTwit Directory. The GovTwit directory includes all facets of government on Twitter: state and local, federal, contractors, reporters, academics, judicial branch and more.
5. Hashtags .Directory of hashtag users on Twitter.
6. Just Tweet It. A directory of Twitter users sorted by categories. Good way to find new people to follow or list your name to let people find you.
7. Legal Birds. List of legal professionals on Twitter such as lawyers, law librarians and academics.
8. Tweeple Rank. This website tracks a number of hashtags that are used to recommend people on Twitter, specifically #FollowFriday, #TweepleTuesday and #MrTweet. Easy to find best ranking twitterers.
9. Tweet Top. Tweet Top is the latest and greatest from Twitter people on popular topics. All the top tweets all the time.
10. TweetFind. Free Twitter yellow and white pages directory. Created to help people find new twitters to follow and a place where people can add their own Twitter accounts to a Twitter directory for free.
11. Tweetminster. TweetMinster is a service that makes it easier to connect the public with politicians using Twitter. TweetMinster helps you track UK politics in real time and to find and follow Members of Parliament and Prospective Parliamentary Candidates.
12. TweetWorks. Do you have favorite conversation topics? Start or join a group and connect with others who share your enthusiasm.
13. Twellow. The Twitter yellow pages. Browse through Twitter users to follow them or list yourself to get followers.
14. Twibs. The place to find businesses on Twitter.
15. Twitter Groups. Create or join a group of people with similar interests.
16. Twitter Link Up. Another directory of Twitter users.
17. Twitter Passion. Directory to grow your business, meet new friends, and network with like minded people! You can search by category and submit yourself as well.
18. Twitterectory. You’ve guessed it. It’s another Twitter directory where Twitter users will be offered the opportunity to include their names in the list under a particular category making it easier for people to find them.
19. TwitterPacks. A site where the community recommends fellow Twitter users by topic of interest or geographical area.
20. WeFollow. A user powered Twitter directory. It displays and categorizes Twitter users according to tags and lists users based on the number of followers they have. ‘

I found this video on SearchEngineWatch.com, it is a Video put togeter by Jonathan Allen while at the SES London event in 2009. It asks 50 SEO’s a simple question: What should we do with the balck hat seo’s?

What do you think? Post your answer below!

There is always a lot of Hoopla and Hype about Google Pagerank (PR).  Is Google PageRank worth all the web chatter? I see everyone talking about how important PageRank is, even I am caught up in the PageRank addiction.

I read a comment the other day on a forum and someone posted this comment about PageRank:

“The PageRank you see in the toolbar is a sketchy and stale metric of what a pages PageRank used to be. A simple analogy is getting into your car to go for a drive, knowing that the fuel gauge only shows the amount of fuel that was in your tank 3 months ago. But would you really trust that there is gas in it today?”

In my opinion the green PageRank bar is like your website’s report card.  It won’t help much on its own, but it represents other things about your site.  If a site has a PR7 and is ranking well, it’s not ranking there because of the PageRank itself, but because of what that PageRank represents - Dedicated SEO Work, lots of inbound links, several coming from other quality sites.

So it is not the PageRank that is important, it is what you did to get the PageRank that hold the true value.

I’ll certainly admit that PageRank isn’t as valuable as it once was.  However, it is still reputed to be a small portion of the Google algorithm (along with 100+ other factors), making it not entirely insignificant.  It might not help much, but if it helps at all then it can’t be considered “insignificant”.

What Is Your take on PageRank? Tell us by leaving a comment!

List of official Google accounts on Twitter :

Google - Google’s main account on Twitter.

YouTube - For YouTube lovers.

Googleimages - For Google Image Search updates.

Googlereader - For news regarding Google Reader.

Googleapps - For latest and popular Google Apps.

App_engine - For Technical Updates on Application Engine.

Blogger - Acts like Blogger FAQS.

Googlewmc - Twitter account for Google Webmaster Central (main account)

Adwordshelper - main AdWords support account

Mattcutts - Matt Cutts, head of web spam team in Google

Are we missing any? Leave a comment!

Here is a list of official Google Blogs:

The Official Google Blog - Insights from Googlers into our products, technology and the Google culture.

AdWords Agency Blog - The latest from Adwords from you and your client.

AdWords Retail Tips - Adwords tips for the retailers

AdSense Blog - A look inside Google AdSense. With newbie, optimization, AdSense features, and more.

Adwords API Blog - The official source of information about the AdWords API from Google.

Adwords Blog - Google’s official blog for news, information, and tips on AdWords.

AJAX Search API Blog - At this Blog Google gives info about how to use the AJAX Search API.

Google Affiliate Network Blog - News, views and product information for Google affiliate network advertisers and publishers.

Analytics Blog - Here you can get the latest news, tips, and resources from the Google Analytics team.

Android Blog - Blog for developers working with Android, An Open Handset Alliance Project.

Base Blog - Get news, tips, and resources straight from the Google Base team.

Blogger Blog - The Official buzz from blogger.

Checkout Blog - The official Checkout Blog with news for sellers using Google Checkout.

Code Featured Projects - Blog about featured projects on Google Code.

Code Updates Blog - Read all about the latest Google Code updates at the Code Blog.

CPG Blog - News and notes from Google’s Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG).

Custom Search Blog - The latest news, updates and tips from the Custom Search Engine team.

Data APIs - Official Google Data APIs blog.

Desktop APIs - Your official source on the Google Desktop APIs.

Docs Blog - News and notes from the Google Docs team at the official Docs Blog.

Enterprise Blog - A blog about enterprise information, search, and the users that live there.

Feedburner Blog - The Official Feedburner blog of burning questions.

Finance Blog - News and views from the Google Finance team.

Gadgets API Blog - Intended for people who use the Google Gadgets API to write gadgets.

Gears API Blog - Keep up to date on Google Gear’s progress with Gears API Blog.

Gmail Blog - News, tips and tricks from Google’s Gmail team and friends.

Grants Blog - We started this Blog as a place to read about the latest Google Grants news and information

Let’s Take it Offline - The latest news form Google’s TV, Print and Audio Ads team

Lat Long Blog - News and notes by the Google Earth and Maps team

Are we missing any? If you know of more official Google Blogs leave a comment!

List Of Reputation Management Firms

Online Reputation Management is a very popular service online. Listed below are all of the reputation management firms and services found when you search for reputation management online. Each link below will take you to a page where you can review the reputation management company.

• Reputation Armor
• NetPardon.com
• ReputationAdvocate.com
• ReputationDefender.com
• ReputationHawk.com
• RemoveYourName.com
• GeneralCorporate.com
• Remove Rip Off Reports
• ReputationManagementFor.com
• Andy Beal
• OnlineReputationManager.com
• SentimentMetrics.com
• Levick.com
• ReputationProfessor.com
• RemoveRipoff.net
• 97thfloor.com
• DoneSeo.com
• ReputationAdvisor.com
• Reputation Repair Center
• SEOP.com
• Reputation Firewall
• SenderScore.com
• Reputation Management Consultants
• Internet Defense Group
• CustomScoop.com
• CustomerMagnetism.com
• RepRX.com
• Credo Media Group
• ChatterGuard.com
• Elixir Interactive
• eRepute.com
• RatePoint.com
• ManageYourNews.com
• RepuClean.com
• BigBlueRobot.com
• ReputationMedia.com
• TrackUR
• Netsmartz
• BrandRevitalize
• Kent Campbell
• Softline Solutions
• Tsavo Agency
• TruReputation.com
• Zallas.com
• GuardMyRep.com
• ReputationManagers.com
• DefendMyName.com

Recently Google announced the unleashing of Google’s “Real-time search” in the search engine results. Matt Cutts covered it in his blog. This is a new feature that will facilitate Google to provide up-to-the-minute updates (”freshness” and “relevance”) on any search inquiry/subject a user researches.

According to Amit Singhal of Google (responsible for Google search algorithms), “Light can travel around the world in 1/10th of a second, and we won’t rest until the speed of light is the only barrier to getting good search results to you.”

How to use the Google Real-Time Search Feature:

Matt Cutts said in his blog that Google processes billions of documents per day for their real time search. Google has really enhanced considerably in speeding up the crawling and indexing procedure, which is exceptional even with the already-enormous and mounting size of the web.

Step 1: Go to www.google.com

Step 2: Type your query and press “search.”

Step 3: When the results load completely, find “Show options” under the search box. Click it.

Step 4: Under “Any time,” click “Latest.” This will let Google give the latest results (real-time search results).

It is very extraordinary that Google is still able to grant updates as early as “1 minute ago.” This is very fast, and is really “real-time.” You can even observe that Google regularly adds updates even when the browser is not refreshed as indicated: “New results will appear below as they become available.”

One feature I noticed that was neat was the Twitter updates included in the Real-Time Search Results as seen below:

To stop receiving frequent updates, you can click “pause.”

Reputation Management Firms

I came across a new website that lists almost all Reputation Management Firms and allows users to post a review about the companies listed. The website features about 50 or so Reputation Management Companies and the list is surely to grow as the industry grows. It appears the site was just created over the holidays, most likely by a reputation management company. Either Way it is a good idea to have a review site for this industry, there is a lack of reviews online about Reputation Management Companies.

If you are in the reputation management industry or want to review a reputation management company, check out the site here: http://www.iReputationReviews.com

Yahoo! Inc might be pulling the plug on the “blogger” social networking service MyBlogLog.

ReadWriteWeb reports MyBlogLog will be closed down by Yahoo! in January 2010 (Next Month)
MyBlogLog is a social-network service for the bloggers that enables them to connect with other blog writers and readers visiting their sites. The website lists the profiles information of the writers as well as the blogs for the same.

MyBlogLog was a wildly innovative service that grew fast after launching in 2005. It was originally developed by Cloudspace, a Florida-based web applications development organization and was acquired in January 2007 by Yahoo! for around $10 million. There were over 45,000 blogs subscribed at the time.

Chris Yeh, Head of Yahoo! Developer Network (YDN) says, “Frankly, it’s no secret within Yahoo! that we’re actively discussing the future of MyBlogLog. However, it’s also true that we have not made any final decisions at this point. Is a shutdown on the table? Sure, that’s an option. But there are other options as well. We know this creates some uncertainty for current MyBlogLog users. While we aren’t quite ready to share more details, we promise to keep you posted.”

Yahoo! has shut it’s a variety of products in the past year, with the objective to cut-costs and be more focused on its “core” services. If MyBlogLog shuts down, I see a lot of MyBlogLog users being very upset. There are a lot of paid users and avid users of MyBlogLog.

Our blog (SEOFRIENDLY.COM) is on MyBlogLog and we get a fair amount of traffic from our listing with them. In my opinion, Yahoo! Inc. should stick with this project or at least transfer ownership to another company that could keep the site alive.