Google recently made the widely expected broadcast that it plans to convert all existing Google Places pages into Google+ Local pages. Internet marketing company understands well about the changes that occur and the ways to manage them for the best. The purpose of this writing is to elaborate that how this shift affects local SEO best practices.

First, here are some clarifications to avoid any confusion. Previously, two options were in use for promoting your business through Google.

• A Google places page, which was a directory style listing, displayed your basic business information, pictures, and reviews as an element of the “Places” listings. These pages were not included in conventional SERPs.
• A Google+ Page was an individual web property that can be set up in the Google+ social network.  Many business used “Local Business or Place” class, Google+ pages are for different classes that include “Product or Brand,” “Company, Institution or Organization,” and “Arts, Entertainment or Sports”.

The latest level of Google+ Local pages only influences the first type by replacing the former Google Places listings.  As a result, you can have both a Google+ Local page and a Google+ Page for your business.

Presently, Google+ Local pages have changed “Google Places”, no way is there to merge your present Google+ Local page with your Google+ Page but, Google have declared that incorporation choices will be available in the future.

Effect of Google+ Local pages on SEO:

The following changes have occurred due to transition of Google Places/Google+ Local pages.

1. Google Places pages have twist into Google+ Local pages.
2. A “Local” tag has inserted to Google+ to offer users with modified and social suggestions for particular Google+ Local pages.
3. Zagat review data has changed Google’s previous method, and the site’s previous pay wall has been eradicated.
4. Google+ Local pages are being incorporated to Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Mobile.

These changes have had a slight impact on Local SEO. Now, new Google+ Local pages will be indexed in comparison to older Google Place pages. Local businesses can take advantage of this effect by making new Google+ pages; this may lead to an increased presence in the natural blended SERPs. Hire professional SEO services for your online business promotion as SEO companies are well aware of these new changes and the ways to solve them according to the Google’s demands.

The second possible impact of this change will be the advantage of future social functionality. The valuable point is that most of the social benefits guaranteed to local businesses on the Google+ network are currently only available on Google+ Pages.

The interesting point is that the changes to Google+ Local pages are not likely to have a remarkable effect on the SERPs. That means, sites would not change in rankings depending upon the presence or absence of their Google+ Local pages.  In all cases acknowledged so far, arrangement of the results listings displayed in the traditional SERPs appears to exactly copy the organization of pages within previous “Places” SERPs.

What you need to do if you already have a proved Google Places page?

According to Google, if you previously had a confirmed Google Places page, you’ll need to keep up with the maintenance of this page in the Google Places for Business control panel.

You will still be able to verify your basic listing data, make updates, and respond to reviews. Individuals who use AdWords Express, your ads will act normally as they will forward people to the objective you elected on current listings.

Moreover, if you already had a well-known Google+ Page for your business, you’ll require keeping up with this page individually until Google gives the opportunity to move your previous Google Places page and your Google+ Page.

As the social media came into spotlight, the Facebook frequent updates gained the speculation. The massive transformation introduced by Facebook known as the Timeline is the biggest so far and has gained the spotlight position. It has become the talk of the town for not only the Face bookers, but also among a number of entrepreneurs and executives.

How is Facebook Timeline Effective for Business Pages?

Facebook timeline feature is the much anticipated media integration, and with its digital scrapbook outlook, it can help the customers to get a chronological outlook of their historical development, current ventures, and the future prospects.

With its magazine-like layout, the Timeline aims to bring you more business exposure and deeper user perspective. The production of stories in the “News Fees” will help in the branding of the label and the products, services and other relevant business information. The worth watching images and the worth reading business structures can help lure the prospective clients in getting involved with the business you are promoting.

Taking Advantage of Facebook Timeline for Business Building:

With the help of such a layout, the businesses can offer a whole picture of their work in an instant with the timeline scenario. If you want to take advantage of the Facebook timeline features and extend your business image to the wider audiences, here are some tips and techniques through which you can maximize your business with the help of Facebook’s social media marketing practices:

• Making Use of the Cover Photo:

The very first thing, which you can do to brand yourself, is by using the visual image for the cover photo and represent your business.

• Using the Subscribing Feature:

You can use the subscribe feature to your use by keeping updates of your clients. The updates will remain visible on your news feed permanently with subscriptions.

• Music Integration on Facebook:

You can check out your friend’s activities and see the music playlists at Spotify, which was currently integrated with Facebook.

• Foodspotting from Facebook:

Another feature of facebook, which can help the eating businesses know what and where everyone is eating and their likes and dislikes.

• Importance of Sharing:

The “Share” button on Facebook can help you repost the links to other timelines. This will help you revise your offerings to the clients.

• Facebook Ticker:

Present of the right side of your Newsfeed, Facebook Ticker will help you view your friend’s updates and will help you follow it. It is a great way to enter web marketing scenario and expose your brand or business to the public.

Facebook Timeline will help your customers to be loyal to your brand and share their experiences to expose the business publicly. However, many facebool users who find the feature very overpowering have registered many complaints about the timeline.

Some people are also of the view that this appearance of profile looks very busy or colossal and they do not find any reason to make the change. They took a lot of time in managing their preferences in the old layout, which is much easier to navigate. Nevertheless, people who are open change will know the benefits, which the timeline has to offer for their business marketing.

Online branding sites are creating their presence among the internet users. They are actively engaged to influence their current and future customers even further. To discover where the online conversations are happening and to respond to the demands in a timely manner, online businesses are seeking ways to get the reputation on social networking sites.

Recording the Social Media Activities of Your Visitors:

Website monitoring helps the business owners to discover who is saying what online. A snippet of JavaScript, which was provided by Mixcloud could help in the logging the activity of the site visitors on the Facebook, when they sign in or log out from there. Any internet marketing company can now customize the social networking buttons, monitor, and record the logging activity of the visitors coming in at specific networks.

While, there a number of API associated with the Facebook applications that offer the websites to gather information about the users, there is no such thing available for Twitter and Google+ and so the stats are usually void.

Techniques to Stalk the Website Visitors on Google Plus and Facebook:

It is often hard to hit upon a technique, which can help the person to track the logon activities of the people on a number of online social platforms. Nevertheless, here is the unveiling of the mechanism, which can help the people to detect what they need to know and track activities to gain static ratios of their user preferences on the web.

Setting Up the Online Media Tracking System:

You can become a code junkie and track your online users with expertise. However, for that you need to follow two main steps of establishing the tracking codes on your websites:

• The very first thing, which you need to do, is to setup an empty Facebook app. This is required so that the API code for Facebook works for the domain. Setting up of this app is easy and takes no more than a minute.
• Once this is done, install the JavaScript code.

The details of setting up the systems for social media networks are as under:

Creating a Free Facebook App:

Creation of the Facebook app is necessary, as the Facebook API code will only allow domain to make requests to the App associated with that domain. For that, just go to the Developers page on Facebook and create the new app from there. Once the changes have been saves, grab the App ID from the page.

Installing the JavaScript Code:

Once you add Google analytics to your page copy the code and add this snippet of JavaScript at the top of your page. After that, another code, to establish the login button for Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, is added. Also, ensure that you replace the Facebook appID code with that AppID you had created.

Making Data Visible in the Analytics:

Once the code has been set up and the tracking system is installed in the Google Analytics, you are ready to view your data appearing on the analytics. This may take up a few hours but small segments can help you view the data properly and record it accordingly.

To sum it up, with the growing intensity of the social media site, the brands and online businesses try to engage themselves with the current trends occurring among the people. Facebook API access has made these possible, but it is harder to gather the stat reports for other sites such as Twitter and Google+. The best way to achieve appropriate results is to change the details of social buttons and use the above-mentioned tracking method to use the traffic recordings at the Google Analytics with ease.

The phenomenon of social media has swept all across the virtual world. There would be hardly anyone who can deny the impacts (mostly, positive ones) of social media on overall behavior of internet. It has definitely caused a great stir in the conventions of using (or exploiting) the potentials of internet, especially the online marketing.

With masses looking for opportunities of increased interaction with each other as well as with the brands that are being promoted online through various social networks, how could have online marketers missed this opportunity? With appropriate social media optimization, the charm and efficacy of online marketing has definitely surged up to new levels.

Out of all popular social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., Facebook seems to lead the rest with considerable margin in most of the dimensions of social media. This is so, because Facebook strives to introduce changes according to the changing demands and moods of its users, thus leading the pack.

Given below is a description of some of the most recent changes introduced by Facebook, to educate people better about their possible impacts. They include:

The Ticker

This is perhaps the most controversial change that Facebook introduces. It is reported to have generated mixed responses. There are people who found News Feed Ticker to be the single most interesting change introduced till yet, while there are also people who hate it to the limits.

Sitting in the upper right corner, News Feed Ticker serves as a live commentary of a baseball match, updating you about what almost everyone in your profile is up to right now. One benefit of Ticker from online promotion perspective is that you can see and reply any of your contacts who get into any kind of interaction at your fan page.

Smart Lists – Aiding The Friends Button

Now, Facebook offers you even more control over how you segregate among different group of people in your profile by adding smart lists with Friends button. After these recent changes, your Friends button is also provided with additional options of

• Close Friends
• Family
• Acquaintances
• School
• Your city

This type of segregation offers you increased control over publicity of content on your profile. If there are some funny moments you just want to share among “Close Friends” only, without letting other of your profile contacts interact with it, this list serves amazing for that. Smart Lists definitely increase your control over your Facebook profile.

The News Feed

Another change made by Facebook is the new News Feed. Instead of “Top News” and “Most Recent” to toggle between, now you get “Top Stories” and “Recent Stories”. Top Stories appear up in the list while Recent Stories lay below it. Top Stories is compilation of events Facebook thinks you should know, based on your past interaction, while Recent Stories is the compilation of activities in a chronological order.

The Subscribe Button

The new “Subscribe” button seems to cater the needs of people who do not feel like making a specific fan page, but still want to interact with a large number of people. It is simply there to help you make your present profile more public without making some extra efforts.

Facebook Timeline

Facebook Timeline is another significant change made by Facebook management. This time they decide to make changes in the way you saw “Profile” and “Account” on the upper right corner. The personal “Profile” page is now referred as the “Timeline” which hosts everything about you, from your “Stories” to “Apps”, thus enabling you to represent yourself in a new and different manner.

One thing is for sure, interactive changes like these are not only going to affect the way individuals interacts with each other through social platforms, but they are definitely going to impact the norms and practices of online marketing, making web marketing services come up with strategies that can make best use of such interesting changes.

In this day and age, no organization can afford to ignore consumers. Consumers are important because they allow the business to flourish and dissatisfying them would mean a bad word of mouth for your organization leading to a bad reputation in the market and reduced sales.

Due to this reason, organizations are looking for ways to monitor and find consumers that are loyal. They are also looking for ways to determine the emotions of their consumers so that the marketing and branding professionals can depict trends and manage their marketing activities accordingly.

Marketing Trends for 2011

An examination of the consumer values in 2010 depicts some internet marketing trends for the coming year as well. These trends are essential for the success of a brand or a business. Without them, the company might end up losing customers. As observed, these trends are given below.

1. Value: As a brand, the value of your product is what the consumer thinks it is. Therefore, if your product is ubiquitous, it will lose value. Consumers will not attribute the right value to your product. Brands also lose value when coupled with increased spending. Trends show that ubiquity will cause problems for the brands.



2. Distinctiveness: People have started realizing the marketing tools and it is no longer easy to fool consumers. Internet marketing has reached to a point where it is essential for brands to stand for something important. Consumers can easily distinguish when brands are just following what their competitors or doing. Therefore, it is important that corporate social responsibility activities are carried out with honesty and are engaging.



3. Differentiate: Differentiation of a product is an essential tool for the success of a brand or even a business. As long as the brand can be differentiated, consumers will believe that it carries value and will continue to use the brand. True differentiation is when the brand offers something unique that hasn’t been offered before, however, the type of differentiation that clicks more in the internet marketing world is emotional differentiation. In this age of competition, emotional differentiation distinguishes between two products that are identical in nature. The latest trends show that consumers will start differentiating more on the basis of emotional distinctiveness.



4. Word of Mouth: One of the best marketing tools that can increase the sales of a brand enormously is word of mouth. Good word of mouth regarding a product can increase the standing of the product and a bad of word of mouth for the same product can easily damage the business as well as the product. Therefore, it is best to make sure that your brand enjoys good word of mouth. Trends also suggest that consumers will increasingly rely on social networking sites to decide about the purchase of a specific brand. Therefore, if you are not using social media optimization, it is advisable to start using it now as it can help you further your business.

Conclusion

With the proliferation of internet and social media websites, the use of internet marketing has increased. This has also led to the increasing use of social media optimization tools to enhance the presence of a business or product in the online world.