It is essential for every business owner, no matter the size of your enterprise, to have some sort of web presence. While some small businesses just have a Facebook page, it's more beneficial to actually have a new and dedicated site built to serve as your business' home base. A .com registered in your name is ultimately more reliable than a single page owned by a social network.

There was an excellent piece in the Atlantic last month about the power of “dark social.” Dark social is, essentially, the links to your site that you can’t account for. That is, you don’t know where your visitors are coming from. When looking at your analytics, you have to keep in mind just how limited you are. In many instances, a majority of your sites views won’t come from a specific referrer. There is no referrer data if someone comes from a dark social source, such as instant messenger or email.

Of all the popular social media companies out there, Facebook always feels like the most troubled. It also has more users than any of its competitors, so criticism is easy to come by. Ever since it's lackluster IPO, the company has been scrambling to come up with a way to reassure investors that they are worth the billions they were valued at. Responding to market pressures, Facebook has aggressively pushed the message that they are focusing their energy on becoming a mobile service first and foremost. As more and more users access the internet primarily through their phones, Facebook is rushing to change the way they operate in order to meet the needs of changing demographics.

New York and New Jersey are still recovering from the devastation brought by Hurricane Sandy. When it's all said and done, weeks and months will pass and the monetary cost will be astronomical, which is to say nothing of the lives lost.

When business owners hire search engine optimization companies, they do so because they want to get their website ranked higher on Google or Bing. However, obtaining the conversions you want goes beyond landing on the first page of the SERPs. People who click the link to your site then have to be compelled to buy from you. It's at this point where we seriously need to discuss content.

How many of you have friends that don't use their real name on Facebook? Perhaps you do this yourself. If you're like most people, a decent portion of your friends list has people swapping out their last names for their middle names. This all seems harmless enough, right?

SEO has come a long way since its murky early days of link farms and obvious keyword stuffing. Not only are these practices unsightly and suspicious looking to potential customers, but now they will also get you into heaps of trouble with Google. The Penguin update that's been causing site owners to nervously check their analytics has changed the way we view content. While keyword stuffing has been a bad idea for a long time, it's now a serious offense.

Twitter has released a bit of news that appears to have angered the developer community. But it's not just app developers that should take pause with the latest news from the people at Twitter. Social media companies might be just as affected depending on what tools they use to run their campaigns.

The internet is abuzz about the App.net project that has shattered its fundraising goals days before its target date listed on their pseudo-Kickstarter site. If you are a professional who handles social media campaigns or you're a business owner looking to hire a firm to handle a campaign for you, this development should pique your interest.

Are you in the market for search engine optimization services?  Have you come to realize providers are not created equally?  The industry is not officially regulated.  That makes for interesting interactions with the good, bad, and ugly companies.  It's hard to make a distinction when every provider states their services are the best.

Social media campaigns have become an essential part of most businesses' internet marketing strategies. When used properly, social media can be a cost effective way to get your message out there. By providing links to your best content, your followers and friends will (with any luck) share that content to their respective networks. See your name spread for relatively little expense. Think of it as crowdsourced advertising, in a way.

Here's a hypothetical situation for you, small business owner/independent contractor. You've recently opened shop. Your ecommerce site is up and functioning. You're ready to start writing freelance articles for all the big players in your industry. The next thing you do is sign up for accounts with Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Guerrilla marketing is experimental in nature and aggressive.  Online marketing can be 'in your face,' but that's just a figurative term.  This summer a number of brands have decided to literally get in the face of brand fans, using buses, caravans, and even fire engines to interact with the masses.

As a business owner, what do you want out of employees?  We know you established a business to make money; that's pretty obvious.  Employees are a means to business success.  But, let's be more specific.  What do you really want out of your employees?

I am friendly with a retail store owner.  It's interesting to know how much thinking some implementations warrant.  Think of a store as a Web page, only larger and obviously more interactive.  Where should he place his goods to recruit attention and make conversions?

I've somewhat embraced the Google zoo because the inability to 'game' the engine has called for more marketing.  Sorry, (you know who you are).   So, this thing marketing, I'm no expert; but, I know a little about a little.