Tag Archives: Google

Google’s New Privacy Policy…what does it mean?

Posted on January 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

Tuesday Google announced they are revising the privacy policy of 60 of their services, to bring them all under one privacy policy umbrella.  As an avid Google user, I received an email from Google alerting me to this change this morning.  I’m not much of an alarmist on this sort of thing but I use Google for everything.  I have a Gmail account, use Google Calendar, Google search, an Android phone, have posted a couple videos on YouTube, use Chrome as my browser and Picasa to store and share photos.  Just in case some of you are Google users too, I thought I’d share some of what I discovered.

 I found a good article on the subject from the Washington Post.  I have the highlights here but check out the full article or read the new Google policy for yourself.

The new policy will unify up to 60 services under one policy, enabling those services to share information about you.  The only sites excluded from this are Google Books, Google Wallet, and Google Chrome, due to regulatory and technical issues.  Should the regulations permit or the technical issues be resolved I’m sure they will bring these into the fold as well.  If you sign in to a Google product other than these three, you must agree to this policy.  If you do not want your data shared you must close your Google accounts; all of them.  Collecting all this data in one place will help them get a fuller picture of who you are, what you are interested in, and how you spend your time online.

The information they collect is anything from calendar appointments and location data, to contacts, information about your smartphone, and what you search for.  Google’s stated purpose for collecting your information is to create a more intuitive experience for you.  For example, the ads you view will be based on the data they collect.  Additionally, lets say you are driving in traffic and your Android phone knows where you are by GPS.  It also knows you have a meeting and the traffic in the area, so it sends you a reminder so you will not be late.  Sounds helpful as long as you don’t mind the technology keeping such close tabs on you. 

Some people will see the changes as progress enabling them to do more from one resource.  Others will view this as an invasion of privacy.  It’s up to each individual consumer to decide and opt in or opt out

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Press Release Tips for Small Business

Posted on August 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

Many small and midsized business owners don’t take full advantage of the valuable marketing opportunities available through the press release.  I found a blog from Mainstreethost.com with some great tips as to when a small business should consider sending a press release.  I posted highlights below but the full blog can be found here.

  1. Company achievements and milestones such as 10 years in business or achievement awards given to your employees.
  2. Posting any upcoming seminars or classes your company is offering your customers.
  3. Charity work such as a corporate challenge or volunteer work.  If the little league team you support wins a pennant…as the blog states, people trust businesses involved in charities and social causes.
  4. Sales and discounts are another opportunity for a release, and why wouldn’t you want media channels to spread the word about that?

A huge benefit to online releases is the search engine optimization options it offers.  A press release about your business containing your keywords provides additional credibility and strengthens your business brand.

NALA has a great Press Release product available for members.  Their program is designed to give your business the buzz it needs.  A simple order form and instructions can have your release distributed to over 5,500 websites including Google, Yahoo, Yahoo News, Forbes and numerous journals and television stations websites!  For more information check them out at theNALA.com.

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Posted in Online Advertising, Press Release

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Search Engine Marketing 101

Posted on August 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) simply means using search engines to attract visitors to your website.  If you’re a plumber in Boulder you want your name to come up when someone types “Boulder plumber”  into the search box for Google, Yahoo and Bing to name a few.  Website visitors that find your business by searching for your type of business in your area are quality traffic.

There are two basic methods for improving your ranking on search engines.  The first is Search Engine Optimization which we talked about a few weeks ago.  As I stated before, SEO is about optimizing your website to make it more visible and relevant to the search engine.

The second method is pay-per-click advertising.  With this method you create an advertising campaign with text, images or video that appears in “sponsored results.”  If you typed “plumber Boulder Co” into Google’s search box the top 3 listings are highlighted in a box with the word Ads in the upper right.  Every time I reload the page three new ads appear.  If I were to click on the ad for Rescuerooter-Denver.com then they would be charged for that click.  That advertiser can be charged anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars.   The advertiser decides the maximum to spend for each click as well as the maximum they want to spend per campaign.  Advertisers can then track their click-through rates and conversion rates and come up with their ROI.

The key to SEO and pay-per-click are choosing the right keywords.  As I mentioned in a previous post, it’s vital to ask yourself what keywords your customers would use to search for your business.  To refresh your memory and revisit the keyword find tools revisit the post entitled Search Engine Optimization: What it means and how to begin.

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Posted in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

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The Press Release — A Valuable Marketing Tool

Posted on December 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

I recently came across a blog reminding me of the value of press releases, particularly in the online world. The blog was called News Releases – The Marketing Tool That Can Drive Huge Traffic Quickly! The writer was specifically speaking of online releases which are cost-effective regardless of your business size.

The online news world is vast and constantly in search of content.  A well designed news release will b appeal to those content publishers such as Google News, Yahoo News or MSN News.  While most attention to an online release will occur between three and seven days of submission the beauty of the Internet is once it is posted it is likely to live there indefinitely.  Because those releases are often distributed into news feeds, they may also land on popular blogs and a variety of websites.

Make sure your release is an interesting topic that offers perceived value or is unique so that readers will be compelled to follow the release links to your website.

The blog does say off-line press releases are not effective because they require the user to write down the information for later use.  I don’t personally agree because I think even having the name of your business mentioned on television, the radio or in a newspaper has value.

Unfortunately we aren’t all experts at writing or distributing press releases.  There are services out there that can do this for you.  This month NALA unveiled their Press Release benefit for their membership.  This program is designed to give your business the buzz it needs to become more relevant in your community.  With a simple form and instructions, NALA can assist the member in designing a release tailored to their business.  Then they release is distributed to print and broadcast outlets as well as 5,500 websites, including Google, Yahoo, Yahoo News and Forbes.    If you are interested in becoming a member contact info@thenala.com.  If you are already a member and would like information on taking advantage of this new benefit contact benefits@thenala.com.

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Posted in Blogging, Online Advertising, Public Relations, Small Business, Uncategorized

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Social Media & PR 101: How to Keep Up With the Conversation Online

Posted on June 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

You know that your customers talk about you. With the dawn of social media, more and more people are going to social networking sites to share their likes and dislikes of companies. Imagine a checkout line conversation about your business between two people. With social networking, that same conversation is happening but many more people can read it and/or chime in. You have to know that it’s quite possible your customers are talking about you online. So I’m sure you are wondering how to find out what they are saying.

Why should you care? You need to know what people like or don’t like about your product / service. Also, you need to respond to negative comments. The only way you can do this is through monitoring your social presence.

There are a number of places where you can go to find out what people are saying about you online. Here is a quick and dirty list of free tools you should be using right now to track online conversations:

1. Google Alerts – Google Alerts enable you to enter your search terms  about your busines and/ or product and select to receive updates as they happen or once daily. When people discuss  / blog about your company, you will know and be able to respond quickly.

2. Social Mention.com – A real-time social media search engine. You can search either real-time or set up alerts to be pushed to you via e-mail.

3. Facebook Stats- Check your company’s facebook stats and comments to get a sense of how your fans like or don’t like your content.  You can do this by clicking ”more” under the page’s main photo, and you can scan your fans and page views count. If you are a member of a group, check to see if any new discussions started.

4. Google Reader – You can set up Google Reader to discover your mentions on Flickr, Delicious, Digg, etc.

5. SM2 by Techrigy – Their “freemium” level of social media monitoring is quite comprehensive. SM2 includes Twitter content in its searches. They also provide graphs, charts, etc. when it comes to analyzing data, which will definitely impress your boss!

6. Filtrbox - Much like Google Alerts, you can use Filtrbox to track keyword searches. With this tool, you set up “filters” and receive a daily e-mail with results. You’ll have the ability to flag items for follow up, so its is a useful workflow tool, too.

7. Twitter Searches – It’s very critical to search Twitter on your company and/or product. You can do this by visiting either http://www.search.twitter.com or www.tweetscan.com.

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