Both social media marketing and mobile E-Commerce are becoming more prolific and in the years ahead, are expected by experts to generate even more revenue and visibility for businesses that utilize them.  Although major companies such as General Motors have reduced their social media advertising spending due to lackluster results, their social marketing efforts have remained intact.  Additionally, Apple and Google have seen an increase in revenue through their mobile shopping platforms on iOS and Android.  However, the growth of mobile commerce and social media marketing are likely to become more connected over the next several years.  As social network usage and usership continues to rise on mobile devices, businesses will expend more of their marketing efforts on various social platforms.

I recently read a quote from Lewis Schiff of the Inc. Business Owner's Council who said: "Facts get recorded; stories get remembered."

Networking is awesome.

Our first meetup, Agile SEO South Jersey, was amazing. Richard Ortiz and Bruce Rymshaw gave great presentations, both belting out actionable insights over the noisy bar crowd. This was the first public speaking opportunity about SEO for both Rich and Bruce, and they nailed it.

In my last blog post, I discussed the significance of "#NBCFail" and "#Rule40" and their impact on the social media landscape as of late.  The 2012 Olympics have affected the news, sports, entertainment and pop culture and have even influenced advertising and marketing on a global scale.  Throughout the Web and more specifically, social media, this year's Games have recently become the most discussed topic amongst the worldwide Internet community.  However, the historic landing of the Mars Curiosity rover on Monday may have overshadowed the Olympics' overwhelming social engagement levels and subsequently altered the focus of many online marketers and advertisers.

Advertising online has been growing with a significant pace for years and is accelerating across the globe. This is a positive indicator for economic outlooks as agencies and businesses are spending money to reach their customers. Secondly, this is a positive indicator for the health of online marketing and advertising on the platform. Many top tier SEO firms also engage in paid search management and coordinate their offerings together in order to bring the greatest return for customers. As a result, growth figures of current and predictive levels of spending are valuable pieces of information.

In an exclusive interview, Ken Wisnefski, Founder and CEO of WebiMax, talks about some of the major shifts taking place right now in the digital world – such as so-called social-search, Panda and Penguin Algorithm updates that change the game for backlinks, the keys for running successful online marketing campaigns, and so on. He also shares some insights, marketing tips and much more.  Read more

Social media allows her to keep her name and brand out there,” says Wisnefski, who thinks Douglas and others can use it effectively to promote exhibition tours, the better to keep her athletic prowess out front after London, at least occasionally. “But it can also go the other way, as with Michael Phelps.”  Read more

SEO is an ever evolving discipline, and keeping on top of changes is one of the challenges that any SEO faces. This means that the typical SEO spends part of their day researching what the search engines say they are doing, keeping in touch with what other SEOs are writing about, exploring new websites and new business models on the Web, participating in social networks and other sites where news and information and ideas are shared.

The 2012 Olympics have begun and around the world, social media engagement levels have reached nearly record highs since the opening ceremonies. Millions of users have taken to networks such as Twitter and Facebook to voice their opinions on the athletes, events and even network television coverage of this year's Games.

As reported extensively last week when Facebook’s quarterly earnings were made public, they are actively looking for additional ways to increase their revenue from all corners of their business. Our CEO, Ken Wisnefski talked with Bloomberg TV about Facebook, their latest earnings, and the direction of the company going forward. Check out the video here, and the follow-up blog post that discusses some of Ken’s additional ideas. All eyes are on Facebook to determine if they will be able to initiate winning programs and added revenue streams. A primary aspect of this process is finding new, viable ways to advertise on the platform. In this vein a promising offering is Facebook Exchange, their new Real-Time Bidding (RTB) service.

By now, business owners have learned a thing or two about what a SEO company can achieve.  However, the services needed to further a company's online presence and drive conversion rates differ from entity to entity.   While each situation differs, there are a still several elements found in any successful SEO campaign that will always have a positive impact.

For Kenneth Wisnefski, founder and CEO of internet marketing company WebiMax, the story marks a seminal moment in the growth of Twitter from a startup into a six-year-old company.  "They've become more of a 'business,' whereas a year ago they might have looked at things a little bit differently," said Wisnefski.  Read more

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.

Each year, more businesses are adopting social media marketing strategies to enhance their traditional, offline marketing efforts.  The overall reach of social networks is impressive, with the combined user base of Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounting for about 1/7 of the world's entire population.  However, the vast scope of social media has left some business owners concerned about being "lost in the shuffle" and struggling to attain discernable visibility.

Some of you may have been following the ongoing debacle regarding journalist Guy Adams (of The Independent), NBC, the London Olympics and Twitter. For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the latest news, the story basically boils down to a series of events that ultimately ended with a well-known and outspoken journalist being banned from Twitter due to requests from NBC.

Todd Bailey, SEO expert at WebiMax claims that “Google search is now releasing over 50 updates each month to their search engine, disrupting any consistency of guidelines and punishing small businesses that lack the resources to respond.”  Read more

This is the first edition of a new feature on the Optimized Times. We will be looking back at some of the posts related to search and SEO from the previous week, and pointing out some of the ones that we find interesting.

It's impossible to read the latest news in our industry without noticing the tone of immediate concern that so many others have. Ever since the more recent Panda updates started taking a significant toll on SERPs linked with popular trending keywords, everyone has been pointing at Google and blaming the company for the increasingly poor performance of their websites. Add to this the shakeup with Penguin and company's ongoing silence regarding its algorithm and it's easy to see why so many well-known voices in the SEO community are up in arms.

The social gaming company, Zynga, is facing serious financial difficulties.  Yesterday, the company reported losses in the second quarter of 2012 and the subsequent stock devaluation saw shares drop by 39% to just $3.09.  These figures indicate a decrease of almost 70% from Zynga's initial public offering in December.

“People used to take days off from work in the summer to watch the Olympics,” said Kenneth C. Wisnefski, founder and chief executive of Internet marketing company Webimax. No longer. Wisnefski expects to see a drop in midday TV ratings because people will check their Facebook and Twitter accounts for real-time updates while on the go.  Read more

“We simply have never seen such comprehensive engagement as this,” states Kenneth Wisnefski, social media expert and Founder/CEO of WebiMax. “Social media, and Twitter specifically, is driving an unprecedented, real-time, and interconnected experience that improves spectatorship and promotes the Olympic brand – the pinnacle being the London Eye Twitter Positivity Lightshow.  Read more

Google continues to roll out new offerings with their primary product: search. Moving into the mobile market, the social space, and other areas, Google has constantly been trying their hand at new functions, growing their reach and relevance, and for their sake, an ever-increasing user-base that enjoys what they offer.

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.

Facebook announced their Q2 earnings this evening at 5:00pm, New York time, via conference call with shareholders.  The social media firm was expected to announce earnings of $0.12 per share on revenues of $1.16 billion.  Facebook announced earnings of $0.12 per share on revenues of $1.18 billion which was in-line with analysts’ expectations, however their stock price is down more than 11 percent in after-hours trading.

You just launched a new site, began a new business venture.  You're confident in your product/service.  That's taken care of.  What's not is your brand's level of traffic and customer intrigue.  Something has to be done about that.  You've heard about the benefits of online marketing tactics, such as SEO and PPC (pay-per-click) services.  You're very interested, but would like to learn more.  Here's your chance.

How can parents stay one social medium ahead of their kids? Todd Bailey, vice president of marketing and digital strategy at WebiMax, talks with Alisa Parenti in Money, Markets and More.  Listen to the Live interview here

Kenneth Wisnefski catches up with Mark Crumpton on his daily show “The Bottom Line” to discuss Facebook’s Q2 report and gives insight as to the remainder of 2012 looks like for the social media company.  Watch the Live interview here

Link building strategies have come a long way since the early days of SEO and search algorithm updates such as Google's Panda and Penguin have made the process even more complex.  Formerly, link profiles existed merely to bolster the authority of pages within the SERPs.  However, the quality of those backlinks was not deemed to be nearly as important as quantity.  As the search engines have improved their functionality, quality and relevance have become crucial and certain link building strategies have been rendered obsolete.

Amid the controversy of Facebook’s IPO several months ago, there has been considerable debate on not just the viability of advertising on Facebook, but doing so across social media platforms. The potential was always there, but its sustainability for generating revenue over the long-term has yet to be fully proven.