Google Expands Flight Search Outside US To 500 Cities

Google Flight Search is taking off to international destinations. Starting today users can search for flights to 500 airports outside the US. Google hasn’t provided a comprehensive list of destinations, but most European and Asian cities I searched for were available.

Pew: Twitter, Facebook Aren’t Moving As Much News As You Think

We’ve heard that social media is a great source of traffic for news outlets so often that it’s close to textbook. Yes, Facebook, Twitter and the rest are important, according the2012 State of the News Media report by Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism—but not yet as important as the buzz might lead you to think.

That’s not to dismiss the value, rather to put it in perspective in a way that may be hard to see when you spend a lot of time immersed in various forms of social media. Nine percent of the respondents in the latest PEJ annual survey “very often” follow news recommendations from Facebook or Twitter via computer, mobile or tablet—a growing number, up 57 percent from 2009.

Will Pending Layoffs Put Final Nail In Yahoo Search?

Whatever is left of Yahoo Search — and, frankly, that’s unclear at this point — might be gone completely within the next couple of weeks.

At AllThingsD today, Kara Swisher is reporting that Yahoo is planning substantial layoffs as early as next week, with a company restructuring to be revealed the week after that. Swisher, who’s been correct on things like this in the past, mentions “a half-dozen sources” in reporting on Yahoo’s impending plans.

For Social Media Marketers, SEO Is Much More Popular Than PPC

Social media marketers are much more likely to also use SEO in their marketing efforts than PCC, according to a new survey out today.

Social Media Examiner announced the results of its fourth annual survey, which this year had replies from more than 3,800 social media marketers around the world.

A new way to access quality content online

Whether we’re getting the latest election news, making sense of the day’s stock market activity or looking for an update on our favorite celebrities, we rely on publishers to inform and entertain us. Online publishers often fund the creation of this content through ads; sometimes they ask you to pay for content directly, by buying a subscription or purchasing a particular article.

Now, you may see a new option: the ability to access some of this content by responding to microsurveys, without having to pull out your wallet or sign in. When a site has implemented this option, you’ll see a prompt that offers you a choice between answering a market research question or completing another action specified by the publisher (such as signing up for an account or purchasing access). All responses are completely anonymous -- they aren’t tied to your identity or later used to target ads. The prompts look like this:

Local SEOs Analyze Current Google Ranking Factors

Although the local search landscape has changed pretty significantly, the fundamental elements of ranking well in Google’s local search results haven’t strayed dramatically from past years. That’s one of the main takeaways from the 2012 Local Search Ranking Factors report that’s just out today.

Organized (as always) by David Mihm, this year’s survey includes contributions from more than 40 local search marketers around the world. It looks at general Google signals such as Place Page vs. Website vs. Reviews (and more), as well the weight that specific factors may have on local rankings. The top five specific factors in this year’s survey are:

+ Physical Address in City of Search (i.e., it’s hard to rank for “seattle real estate” if you’re based in Bellevue)

+ Proper Category Associations

+ Proximity of Address to Centroid (“centroid” is the geographic center of a city/town)

+ Domain Authority of Website

+ Quantity of Structured Citations

The survey goes on to separate positive ranking factors and negative ranking factors (i.e., having mismatched phone numbers can hurt local ranking visibility).

Not included is Google’s recent switch from Place Pages to Google+ Local Pages, which was announced right at the end of the survey period and — so far — doesn’t appear to have had much impact, if any, on local ranking factors.

Source: Matt McGee/ Searchengineland

Social Media Advertising Is Up

The ANA has released its annual Digital and Social Media Survey, and even though ad spending is up in both metrics, the push may be on the identify what is the most - and the least - successful way of getting customers' attentions. Bad news for Facebook, perhaps...

Here’s something that may be of some comfort to you – or, considering the subject matter, maybe not: You’re not imagining it. There really are more ads on the Internet now than there used to be, especially video ads. That’s just one of the revelations from the Association of National Advertisers‘ 2012 Digital and Social Media Survey.

Online video ad use is the largest growth area in digital advertising, according to the survey, up an impressive 16 percent compared with the same period a year ago to a total 80 percent penetration within ANA membership. Mich of that video marketing is employed within social media and mobile marketing, which in general remain “important part[s] of the marketing mix” in 2012, with 90 percent and 74 percent of marketers currently working inside of those areas, respectively. Breaking down those numbers a little, Facebook remains the most popular Social Media channel for advertisers, with 96 percent of SM marketers using it, followed by Twitter (89 percent), LinkedIn (49 percent), Pinterest (33 percent) and the ever-popular, ever-nebulous “Other” bringing up the rear with 14 percent (I’d be curious to see what percentage is still engaging clients on MySpace, and what percentage of them are involved in the music industry).

For mobile advertisers, there’s still a split in the best way to reach that audience. Branded apps are being employed by 70 percent of mobile advertisers, with 67 percent using QR or AR codes. Text ads are at 53 percent penetration, with non-video ads leading video at 41 percent to 25 percent.

Both social media and mobile marketing are still outperformed by more traditional methods of digital outreach, the survey explains: Email marketing is still employed by a surprising 91 percent of digital marketers, and – less surprising – 95 percent prefer to employ websites where possible (The generic “online advertising” is favored by 89 percent).

An ongoing concern when it comes to all of these outlets, however, is demonstrating their value to clients and executives. 53 percent of those responding to the survey said that there was a “lack of understanding about digital media” within their own organizations, with concerns even more prominent for effective ways to measure and monitor the ROI of digital advertising. “Marketers are rapidly learning what works best for their brands and they look to remain nimble and move to adopt new opportunities,” explained President and CEO of ANA, Bob Liodice. “Platforms offering the most tangible ROI will be favored by marketers moving forward. It is imperative for the industry to standardize measurement practices for digital, social and mobile markets.” Amongst those favored methods that may find themselves losing out in this new metric world order are social media echoes; both Facebook “Like”s and Twitter “Retweets” are proving to be unpopular with marketers, with just 30 and 39 percent of marketers, respectively, finding them of value.

Digitaltrends.com

Social media tips for 2012 - Best Practices & Hints

The power of Social Media is reaching heights. Social media along with SEO can make difference in your online business traffic. Here are the Social Media tips that can work for the year 2012 to reach your audience.

(1) Research using social media monitoring tools to find what your customers speak about you.

(2) Write interesting facts that makes your content read.

(3) Spend on social media marketing only after you research on your customers.

(4) Share industry expert’s write-ups with your network.

(5) Post information’s on social media.

(6) Know people who go with your theme and follow on Twitter.

(7) Have provisions for people to contact you for feedback.

(8) Engage your Facebook fans.

(9) Have your profile information updated.

(10) Select a good username for social media accounts (Mine is jagadeeshmp).

(11) Expand your social media network by sharing quality content.

(12) Create a Google profile and sign up in Google plus. Add circles and interact with interesting links.

(13) Do not only share links that you own. Share all links that are interesting.

(14) Create a YouTube channel, customize based on your website theme and have video content on your selling services, products and interesting facts.

(15) Add link to your social media accounts from your site pages.

(16) Use Bookmarking & Sharing services that have all your social media sites.

(17) Participate in discussion forums, communities and groups. Learn and contribute.

(18) Keep monitoring on new social media sites.

Keep following the blog post. I will be adding more tips on Social Media.