Thursday, August 6, 2009
How To Research The Internet World
Most people tend to respect news which is backed up by information posted on websites of the major media, universities, or government sources. Below are a few key Internet research tips to find reliable sources like these for your articles. The tips covered are:
* How to find the strongest source for your information
* How to find reliable sources when you only have text
* Set your search results to 100
* Take advantage of the "Cache" link
* Find disappeared articles when you have the URL
* Use search engines to search a single website
* Search for reliable videos
* Consider a "What You Can Do" section
How to Find the Strongest Source for Your Information
Readers will generally trust what you write more if you include links to reliable sources for any key information provided in articles you write. A little Internet research can greatly strengthen your sources. If you receive some powerful information you want to include in an article, but it's not from a strong source:
* Pick out several of the key words which would identify all articles written on the topic.
* Type them into a search engine.
* On the results list, scan the URLs at the bottom or each entry.
* Look for the most reliable source listed.
If you don't immediately find a good source, search both on the search engine's news and its regular search page, as the news page often does not include all results from news websites, where the regular search is more complete. You may find the news reported on a respected news website. Note that entries to the news searches usually are deleted after about one month, so you won't find older media articles there.
How to Find Reliable Sources When You Only Have Text
If you receive the text of an article you want to use that claims to be from a major news, government, or other reliable source but no link is given, or the link is to an alternative news website, you can usually find the original article easily on its source website:
* Copy a string of seven to ten words or so from the text. It is better to find text with less commonly used words.
* Copy that string into your favorite search engine and put quotation marks on both ends. This limits the search to only webpages with that exact string and order of words.
* Click "Search"
* Scan the URLs at the bottom of each entry listed to find the news website.
* If the list is too long, click on the "News" link in the string of links at the very top left of the page on Google or in the dropdown menu on Yahoo. This limits the search to pages from websites defined as news websites by these search engines. It may be worth your while to search both Google and Yahoo, as they often differ.
For articles from a news agency like AP or AFP, some people trust it more if it is picked up by a website like MSNBC, ABC, New York Times, etc. By doing a search on a string of words as instructed above, you will often find the article published on a major media website.
Note that if a legitimate, but important AP article is not picked up by other media sites, you can then be fairly certain it is being censored by media ownership. In my extensive research on the Internet, I have found this happens often with subjects most sensitive to the power elite of our world. For clear examples of this by numerous award-winning journalists, click here.
If you are watching a video clip of a news report and want to find it online, you can use the same techniques above. Type in a string of words spoken in the video, and you will often find the report posted on the website.
Set Your Search Results to 100
To ease your searches, set your search engine to display 100 results. Here are directions to do so using Google. Yahoo is similar, though the page you want is under the link "Options" and then "Settings.".
* Go the settings link - to the right of the search button on Google.
* Scroll down to "Number of Results" and change it to 100. This makes searching through more than 10 results much easier.
* Click "Save Preferences" and you are done.
* In that same window you might want to choose "Open search results in a new browser window."
Take Advantage of the "Cache" Link
If you click on a search entry and it gives you a blank page or an error message, it will usually still be available at that cache link. The "Cache" button at the bottom right of search entries on both Google and Yahoo has a recorded image of the page. You might want to download and save the entire page, as it will likely disappear from the search engine before too long if the webpage has been removed.
Find Disappeared Articles When You Have the URL
If you have the URL of an important web page, but the page has been removed, you can often still find it using the Internet archive:
* Copy the URL
* Go to http://www.archive.org.
* If there is anything in the "Wayback Machine" box, delete it.
* Paste what you've copied into the box and click the "Take Me Back" button.
* Click on any date for the original article as it was posted on the date listed.
The above method will show you exactly how the webpage looked on the date it was copied into the archive. Please note, however, that any website can request not to be listed on the Internet archive. Unfortunately, many major media websites have done this. If this is the case, you may or may not be able to find the article on another website using a quote from the original article, as mentioned above.
Use Search Engines to Search a Single Website
When want to search for something on a specific website, there is a way to refine your search so that the entries listed only come from the specified website. In the search engine, simply type "site:" then enter the site's URL, no quotation marks. Type in a space and then whatever you want to search. When entering the site, http:// and www are not necessary, but there must be no space between the colon after the word "site" and the URL.
Search for Reliable Videos
You can sometimes find video coverage of key information by doing a simple video search using key words at http://video.google.com. Google owns both Google Video and YouTube. They also list many other video websites on the video search page, so searching this one resource gives you search results for most popular video websites online. A few times I've been amazed to find video footage of sensitive articles which disappeared from their source website.
Consider a "What You Can Do" Section
The Internet search tips should help you to find the most solid sources available for articles you write. If you want to recommend to your readers to contact the media and their political representatives, you can use this link or post the information from the link. You might also want to include a "What You Can Do" box like that below. It empowers people to join in spreading the word and making a difference. I also invite you to comment below and share any tips you might have.
* How to find the strongest source for your information
* How to find reliable sources when you only have text
* Set your search results to 100
* Take advantage of the "Cache" link
* Find disappeared articles when you have the URL
* Use search engines to search a single website
* Search for reliable videos
* Consider a "What You Can Do" section
How to Find the Strongest Source for Your Information
Readers will generally trust what you write more if you include links to reliable sources for any key information provided in articles you write. A little Internet research can greatly strengthen your sources. If you receive some powerful information you want to include in an article, but it's not from a strong source:
* Pick out several of the key words which would identify all articles written on the topic.
* Type them into a search engine.
* On the results list, scan the URLs at the bottom or each entry.
* Look for the most reliable source listed.
If you don't immediately find a good source, search both on the search engine's news and its regular search page, as the news page often does not include all results from news websites, where the regular search is more complete. You may find the news reported on a respected news website. Note that entries to the news searches usually are deleted after about one month, so you won't find older media articles there.
How to Find Reliable Sources When You Only Have Text
If you receive the text of an article you want to use that claims to be from a major news, government, or other reliable source but no link is given, or the link is to an alternative news website, you can usually find the original article easily on its source website:
* Copy a string of seven to ten words or so from the text. It is better to find text with less commonly used words.
* Copy that string into your favorite search engine and put quotation marks on both ends. This limits the search to only webpages with that exact string and order of words.
* Click "Search"
* Scan the URLs at the bottom of each entry listed to find the news website.
* If the list is too long, click on the "News" link in the string of links at the very top left of the page on Google or in the dropdown menu on Yahoo. This limits the search to pages from websites defined as news websites by these search engines. It may be worth your while to search both Google and Yahoo, as they often differ.
For articles from a news agency like AP or AFP, some people trust it more if it is picked up by a website like MSNBC, ABC, New York Times, etc. By doing a search on a string of words as instructed above, you will often find the article published on a major media website.
Note that if a legitimate, but important AP article is not picked up by other media sites, you can then be fairly certain it is being censored by media ownership. In my extensive research on the Internet, I have found this happens often with subjects most sensitive to the power elite of our world. For clear examples of this by numerous award-winning journalists, click here.
If you are watching a video clip of a news report and want to find it online, you can use the same techniques above. Type in a string of words spoken in the video, and you will often find the report posted on the website.
Set Your Search Results to 100
To ease your searches, set your search engine to display 100 results. Here are directions to do so using Google. Yahoo is similar, though the page you want is under the link "Options" and then "Settings.".
* Go the settings link - to the right of the search button on Google.
* Scroll down to "Number of Results" and change it to 100. This makes searching through more than 10 results much easier.
* Click "Save Preferences" and you are done.
* In that same window you might want to choose "Open search results in a new browser window."
Take Advantage of the "Cache" Link
If you click on a search entry and it gives you a blank page or an error message, it will usually still be available at that cache link. The "Cache" button at the bottom right of search entries on both Google and Yahoo has a recorded image of the page. You might want to download and save the entire page, as it will likely disappear from the search engine before too long if the webpage has been removed.
Find Disappeared Articles When You Have the URL
If you have the URL of an important web page, but the page has been removed, you can often still find it using the Internet archive:
* Copy the URL
* Go to http://www.archive.org.
* If there is anything in the "Wayback Machine" box, delete it.
* Paste what you've copied into the box and click the "Take Me Back" button.
* Click on any date for the original article as it was posted on the date listed.
The above method will show you exactly how the webpage looked on the date it was copied into the archive. Please note, however, that any website can request not to be listed on the Internet archive. Unfortunately, many major media websites have done this. If this is the case, you may or may not be able to find the article on another website using a quote from the original article, as mentioned above.
Use Search Engines to Search a Single Website
When want to search for something on a specific website, there is a way to refine your search so that the entries listed only come from the specified website. In the search engine, simply type "site:" then enter the site's URL, no quotation marks. Type in a space and then whatever you want to search. When entering the site, http:// and www are not necessary, but there must be no space between the colon after the word "site" and the URL.
Search for Reliable Videos
You can sometimes find video coverage of key information by doing a simple video search using key words at http://video.google.com. Google owns both Google Video and YouTube. They also list many other video websites on the video search page, so searching this one resource gives you search results for most popular video websites online. A few times I've been amazed to find video footage of sensitive articles which disappeared from their source website.
Consider a "What You Can Do" Section
The Internet search tips should help you to find the most solid sources available for articles you write. If you want to recommend to your readers to contact the media and their political representatives, you can use this link or post the information from the link. You might also want to include a "What You Can Do" box like that below. It empowers people to join in spreading the word and making a difference. I also invite you to comment below and share any tips you might have.
Tips for Successful Social Media
The panelists spoke about various topics such as; online tools, social marketing and challenges their clients face. Some good points were made throughout the session however, as most panels go, they were all intertwined and scattered. I have highlighted some of the main items that are beneficial to all businesses either as a refresher or as new information.
Communities
How are your customers currently buying items or services? Social media outlets such as Twitter don't work for everyone or every business. Let's take a business such as a local plumber or heating specialist. When do you need a plumber? Typically when something is wrong! Most people will more than likely pick up a phone book or do an online directory search. It's doubtful that anyone will follow a plumber's business on Twitter. On the other hand, if you are looking for a recommendation for a plumber, Twitter or Facebook might be the perfect place for you. According to Goddard, "Social media is really about reducing a risk by reaching out to like-minded peers. It's our way of saying, how do I not make a bad decision?" We go get advice and it's sitting inside these communities, we are getting the information when the conversation is happening and it's all about reducing the risk. The social tools that exist are about streamlining the process.
LinkedIn.com has been around longer than Twitter and it isn't getting as much hype. LinkedIn is a risk reduction and helps members make better decisions on how to build relationships. It's Quality over Quantity. Your business should be tied to your area of expertise, local community or industry specialty. If you are a local business in a specific trade industry try to focus on what you do and important topics that are relevant.
The Clutter
There's really no need to tweet about the peanut butter and jelly sandwich you just ate. According to Cangialosi , "THERE'S A LOT OF A LOT! " There is no way we are paying attention to everything you have written. There is so much white noise that it is crucial for businesses to stay focused. Try to use important keywords or tags that can be searched for easily.
Blue Sky Factory leverages social media technology by using Hubspot. The Hubspot tool looks at web analytics and takes all the keywords you want to optimize and ranks the conversations that are really important. Blue Sky's goal is to engage the community, cut through the clutter, and sharpen the focus.
Tools and Tracking
Messina recommended several different tools which keep a watchful eye on what people are saying about your product or who might be interested.
Search.twitter.com - Twitter's basic search tool
Google alerts - a great way to have information pushed instead of searching with the other tools
icerocket.com - a social and search tool
radian6 - a monitoring source for your brand across the web
Chi.mp - helps steam line across multiple accounts
Dragon Search - social media calculator
One tool that was not mentioned was Twitter Analyzer, which is a tool that is fun to explore.
Rule of Thumb to Execute Social Media
Mario's last question to the panel was, "How much time do you have for all of your social responsibilities? We all know that owning a dog can be free, but don't you have to nurture it?"
Leah recommends before you update your Twitter account to spend 2 hours researching and compile a list of daily social media updates. Update once in the morning and at the end of the day. Leah typically puts aside 1 hour a day for updates.
Greg doesn't use Twitter to update his Facebook account. The Twitter stream is primarily used for business and he separates his personal account from corporate account. He does his tweets in spurts. He recommends that your conversations grow into one on one dialog. You should pick and choose from one platform to another because it is not relevant between the two socials. Try not to use hash marks in your Facebook account - it may be Greek to many of your friends.
Final Words
Matt states, "The Internet is a buying engine - not a selling engine. You have to be a part of the buying process." You can't force the buying moment. Experiment with the tools available to you and evaluate the outcome.
Leah - "When you reach out you can tease out the most important people that are the influencers. They can help you be a bridge to the community. Be genuine and use it methodically."
Greg - "The influencer in today's social world has a very wide footprint so you need to be very authentic, transparent and methodical." The long term strategy for social messaging is making sure your messaging is exact. What's the right story to tell your audience; is it compelling and why?
Communities
How are your customers currently buying items or services? Social media outlets such as Twitter don't work for everyone or every business. Let's take a business such as a local plumber or heating specialist. When do you need a plumber? Typically when something is wrong! Most people will more than likely pick up a phone book or do an online directory search. It's doubtful that anyone will follow a plumber's business on Twitter. On the other hand, if you are looking for a recommendation for a plumber, Twitter or Facebook might be the perfect place for you. According to Goddard, "Social media is really about reducing a risk by reaching out to like-minded peers. It's our way of saying, how do I not make a bad decision?" We go get advice and it's sitting inside these communities, we are getting the information when the conversation is happening and it's all about reducing the risk. The social tools that exist are about streamlining the process.
LinkedIn.com has been around longer than Twitter and it isn't getting as much hype. LinkedIn is a risk reduction and helps members make better decisions on how to build relationships. It's Quality over Quantity. Your business should be tied to your area of expertise, local community or industry specialty. If you are a local business in a specific trade industry try to focus on what you do and important topics that are relevant.
The Clutter
There's really no need to tweet about the peanut butter and jelly sandwich you just ate. According to Cangialosi , "THERE'S A LOT OF A LOT! " There is no way we are paying attention to everything you have written. There is so much white noise that it is crucial for businesses to stay focused. Try to use important keywords or tags that can be searched for easily.
Blue Sky Factory leverages social media technology by using Hubspot. The Hubspot tool looks at web analytics and takes all the keywords you want to optimize and ranks the conversations that are really important. Blue Sky's goal is to engage the community, cut through the clutter, and sharpen the focus.
Tools and Tracking
Messina recommended several different tools which keep a watchful eye on what people are saying about your product or who might be interested.
Search.twitter.com - Twitter's basic search tool
Google alerts - a great way to have information pushed instead of searching with the other tools
icerocket.com - a social and search tool
radian6 - a monitoring source for your brand across the web
Chi.mp - helps steam line across multiple accounts
Dragon Search - social media calculator
One tool that was not mentioned was Twitter Analyzer, which is a tool that is fun to explore.
Rule of Thumb to Execute Social Media
Mario's last question to the panel was, "How much time do you have for all of your social responsibilities? We all know that owning a dog can be free, but don't you have to nurture it?"
Leah recommends before you update your Twitter account to spend 2 hours researching and compile a list of daily social media updates. Update once in the morning and at the end of the day. Leah typically puts aside 1 hour a day for updates.
Greg doesn't use Twitter to update his Facebook account. The Twitter stream is primarily used for business and he separates his personal account from corporate account. He does his tweets in spurts. He recommends that your conversations grow into one on one dialog. You should pick and choose from one platform to another because it is not relevant between the two socials. Try not to use hash marks in your Facebook account - it may be Greek to many of your friends.
Final Words
Matt states, "The Internet is a buying engine - not a selling engine. You have to be a part of the buying process." You can't force the buying moment. Experiment with the tools available to you and evaluate the outcome.
Leah - "When you reach out you can tease out the most important people that are the influencers. They can help you be a bridge to the community. Be genuine and use it methodically."
Greg - "The influencer in today's social world has a very wide footprint so you need to be very authentic, transparent and methodical." The long term strategy for social messaging is making sure your messaging is exact. What's the right story to tell your audience; is it compelling and why?
Social Media Is Powerful.... But What about the Risk?
I like to tell people that social media does not involve a risk. It's not a risk that someone will do something dumb someday. Actually, it is a certainty. If you allow employees to use social media, someone at some time will do something mind-numbingly idiotic.
It might be, as the questioner asks, a security breach. Someone decides that a trade secret would be just the thing to spice of their next tweet. Or it might be something else--making fun of your client, or sexually harassing someone, or telling a politically incorrect joke.
And, in fact, all of these things have been done on social media, and more. The problem, however, isn't social media. It's us. If we don't have the self-control to avoid that kind of behavior, then it will come out in social media or any other place that we operate.
The reason we see social media, or anything new, as risky is as fundamental as human nature. Studies tell us that we always are more comfortable with the status quo than with change, which has probably served mankind well throughout our history.
But risk doesn't disappear just because we are comfortable and accustomed to something. Think about financial risk. Many people were once comfortable with bank savings accounts because their money was growing, but they were running a huge risk that inflation would eat alive their purchasing power. Unfortunately, the risk of changing the investment loomed larger than the risk of staying the course, which seemed safe.
Social media, and just about anything new, is the same. You always have to balance the risk of doing it against the risk of not doing it.
How To Construction of an Optimized Web Page
Having a basic understanding of the construct of your web pages allows you to ensure that the marketers will be able to work with what's been developed without asking for a redesign of the entire site. To successfully optimize your pages for search engine rankings many key elements that must be properly implemented.
Title Tag
Websites don't operate like a book or a brochure, where pages simply flow from one to the next. Every web page on your site is considered a unique document and it needs to be able to stand alone, as well as part of the collective whole. To help establish each page's "identity" (for lack of a better word,) each web page should be given its own unique purpose. The page's title tag is used to identify that purpose.
The title of each web page is found in the tag between the opening and closing <head> tags. For the most part the title is unseen to the visitor except in the top bar of your web browser or in the search results.
<br />
<br /><head>
<br /><title>E-Marketing Intelligence - Up to date search engine marketing information from the Internet marketing experts.
Your title needs to accurately reflect the content of the page. Keep it short, approx 8-12 words, and include the primary relevant keywords. Since this appears as the clickable text in the search results you also want to make it compelling. You're competing for attention here so make it good.
The title tag of each page should be unique. Don't use on-size-fits-all title tags, throwing them all dozens of site pages at a time. Take the time to craft one specifically for each page.
Meta Description
The Meta Description tag is a way to provide the search engines a summary of the page's content. Completely unseen to the human visitor, it can sometimes be displayed as the descriptive text below the clickable title in the search results.
In your code, the Meta Description is placed between the tags below the title.
Your Meta Description should be between 20-50 words in length. It factors in very little in terms of search engine rankings. Your primary benefit is as the description text in the search results, so again, use keywords but make it compelling. It's still a good idea to use unique descriptions on your pages, especially if you are targeting specific keywords. If your page doesn't have a specific keyword focus then it's OK to leave off the description completely.
Meta Keywords
The Meta Keyword tag has so little relevance that it's barely even worth mentioning here. Typically it appears below the Meta Description, but again, it can be left off entirely and nobody would be the wiser, not even the search engines.
Heading Tags
Heading tags are generally used as paragraph headings for your body content. It's a short headline placed in tags (,
Title Tag
Websites don't operate like a book or a brochure, where pages simply flow from one to the next. Every web page on your site is considered a unique document and it needs to be able to stand alone, as well as part of the collective whole. To help establish each page's "identity" (for lack of a better word,) each web page should be given its own unique purpose. The page's title tag is used to identify that purpose.
The title of each web page is found in the
Your title needs to accurately reflect the content of the page. Keep it short, approx 8-12 words, and include the primary relevant keywords. Since this appears as the clickable text in the search results you also want to make it compelling. You're competing for attention here so make it good.
The title tag of each page should be unique. Don't use on-size-fits-all title tags, throwing them all dozens of site pages at a time. Take the time to craft one specifically for each page.
Meta Description
The Meta Description tag is a way to provide the search engines a summary of the page's content. Completely unseen to the human visitor, it can sometimes be displayed as the descriptive text below the clickable title in the search results.
In your code, the Meta Description is placed between the tags below the title.
Your Meta Description should be between 20-50 words in length. It factors in very little in terms of search engine rankings. Your primary benefit is as the description text in the search results, so again, use keywords but make it compelling. It's still a good idea to use unique descriptions on your pages, especially if you are targeting specific keywords. If your page doesn't have a specific keyword focus then it's OK to leave off the description completely.
Meta Keywords
The Meta Keyword tag has so little relevance that it's barely even worth mentioning here. Typically it appears below the Meta Description, but again, it can be left off entirely and nobody would be the wiser, not even the search engines.
Heading Tags
Heading tags are generally used as paragraph headings for your body content. It's a short headline placed in