In yesterday's post, I looked at Google Autocorrect and how a Romanian brand responded to the unfavorable suggested terms for the Google search query "Romanians are…" launching a "Romanian are smart" campaign. The campaign was successful and more attractive terms replaced the undesired ones. Businesses and individuals can find themselves in similar reputation management cases where they seek the services of SEO companies to resolve the issue. Check out that post for thoughts on what companies can do in such a scenario. However, today we look again at Google's Autocorrect, but this time in relation to Japan and the object of unfavorable suggested terms is an individual rather than a nationality.

How would you like to save marketing dollars by getting your brand valued within its community?  Wait.  The gentleman branding process doesn’t work for every person or brand.  There's something I would like to point out to business people, regardless of your industry.  There's one aspect which all of the online marketing, SEO, social media, black/white-hat tactics can't offer your company…personality.  I try to pass on sentiments of great people and branding onto readers; but, I honestly can't ingrain or grant character; that's the man-in-the-mirror's job.

When it comes to Pinterest, far too many people insist that the image-sharing site is mainly geared towards a female user base, especially one which falls within the middle age bracket. However, there have finally been some facts presented to disprove that myth. A recent article from Mashable features a slideshow of 11 men who are all heavy users and big fans of Pinterest. Their activity on the site serves as evidence that Pinterest has appeal to both men and women.

A heated debate has emerged over social media users’ right to privacy stemming from recent reports of corporations and government agencies asking potential applicants to surrender their Facebook login credentials during job interviews.  Read more

As search is their primary function and market, Google continually works to improve the search experience on their platform for their end-users. Google consistently rolls out improvements to their algorithm and search approach, some larger (such as Google Search Plus Your World) and some smaller (such as the continuous geo-targeting refinements), but all are detailed in their company blog, which is an important way that marketers and SEO experts keep abreast of the latest from the search giant.

Recently, I wrote a post leveraging the WSJ's high costs of high-speed technology sentiments.  Today I see more of the same money leveraging taking place.  In this scenario it involves the coming presidential election.  In many ways, the election involves huge marketing campaigns, where loyalists and foil-ists endeavor at outdoing one another.  Behind the liaisons, the campaigning, the slights at others, is the purpose of it all, to provide value to the nation, by elucidating its next best leader.  Like with services and products, ideally all of the marketing is to supply end users, the general public, with value, right?

How many articles have you seen cruise past your Twitter stream?  I see hundreds of suggestions per day.  Where does all that digital content go?  Surely, the lifeline of posts is not long; there's an incipient flood coming by the hour.  However, from a curation perspective, there's no reason for content to rest in peace.

For SEO professionals who have been grappling with the process of adjusting their companies' Facebook Fan Pages to the new Timeline format, here is some news that will inspire them to keep at it. A recent study was conducted by Simply Measured, a company that creates social media analytics software, on 15 companies that updated their Facebook Fan Pages to Timeline on or very close to February 29th, 2012, which was the date that Facebook made Timeline available to businesses on the social networking site.

The reason for the immense appeal of the social media site Pinterest lies in its basis on image-sharing. We are living in a society that is increasingly becoming more drawn to pictures than to words. People are gravitating much more readily to websites that feature many images versus those that contain a lot of written content. Anyone who has been paying attention to the evolution of website designs over the past several years can definitely attest to this growing trend among internet users.

Geo-targeting is a subject we have covered consistently on this blog, considering its prime importance for local and location-specific search. We continuously stress the value in incorporating geo-targeted search terms in on-site content and optimizing for them with a coordinated SEO campaign. Now, Search Engine Watch conducted a study to test the SEO merit of domain and site relevance to the target location. As the state of search evolves continuously, it is helpful to test certain practices in such a way and re-evaluate their worth, and the results give us some additional proof for what SEO experts have been finding in their work.

I'm sneaking Seounday on you late this week.  I hope everyone is enjoying the new season.  I've noticed a few springy tweeting taking place last week.  Our internal marketing squad had its weekly meeting outdoors.

It's that time of the week again…More news about the exploding social media site Pinterest from yours truly. Just when you thought you had heard enough, I reveal how much more there is to add to your store of Pinterest knowledge. After all, every week brings fresh news of how various companies and organizations are making good use of the site for their marketing needs. In addition to that are the changes that the fledgling company is starting to implement, in its efforts to keep apace with the rapid growth of its product on an increasingly massive scale.

In yesterday's post, I introduced some research from Flurry that looks at mobile devices and their rise across the world. Specifically, I addressed the meteoric rise in mobile device activation in China and how Chinese activations have now surpassed the number experienced in the US, making them the fastest growing mobile device market in the world. This is very important for SEO companies and marketers currently operating in or contemplating operating in China as they can leverage mobile to further their exposure and achieve their goals. Today, let's turn our attention to Flurry's numbers regarding app use across the globe and see how marketers can maximize them.

Last night I gave my first ever public presentation on SEO at Triumph Brewing Company in Philadelphia as a part of the monthly meetup, SEO Grail. I had been to 6 SEO Grail meetups prior and was extremely impressed by the level of knowledge each speaker possessed. And the beer was pretty good, too.

Paul Adams, who is the Global Brand Experience Manager at Facebook, gave a talk yesterday to marketer professionals at the Federated Media's Signal conference in San Francisco. An article from TechCrunch reported on the interesting responses, comments, insights, and advice Adams gave to the marketers who were in attendance.

We continue to cover the rise in smartphones and mobile device as well as how companies can strategically leverage the devices' associated technologies and consumer behaviors to drive more business. From optimizing your web properties for mobile browsing and mobile searching to maximizing apps, mobile ecommerce (or m-commerce) opportunities, local search for in-store shopping and utilizing social media, there are seemingly endless possibilities for mobile.

I still have growing to do; I'm only thirty-two (thirty-three next week; send b-day sentiments to Anthony Pensabene, Web Office box Twitter, USA.)  This may seem immature but money isn't everything to me.  I feel some of you sneering; we'll have to agree to disagree.  From a business branding point of view, I think providing exceptional service holds more value than immediate income.  As a consumer, I shop by a golden rule; make me feel valued and I will value your brand.  It seems simple to me.  What seems more lucrative to you, showing your brand's money-making or service-oriented skills?  We know what holds more value for your target market.  You know them, the ones whose favor your entire business depends upon…

A rare piece of bipartisan legislation aimed at helping spur job creation is currently making its way through Congress. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (or JOBS) Act is a package of six bills that would ease various Securities and Exchange Commission rules that apply to small businesses looking to secure financing.  Read more

I want to circle back to news from Google that broke earlier in the month regarding encrypted search and address how it can impact international markets. Google made a change several months ago to google.com where users who are logged in have secure socket layer (SSL) encryption added to their web searches providing an added layer of privacy. Google pushes the security and privacy aspects of the default SSL measure and calls on more companies to adopt SSL in their offerings. This move also set up the then forthcoming launch of Google Search Plus your World. A byproduct of this SSL measure, though, is that less search data is available for advertisers.  It brings the "not provided" keyword return in Google Analytics into existence and pushes SEO companies and internet marketers to reassess and adapt their practices.

Oh boy. The latest news on the street is that the re-designed profile page that Pinterest happily rolled out last Friday – and that I blogged about on Thursday and Friday of last week – is facing a severe backlash full of harsh criticism and complaints from members of the Pinterest community.

I'm socially awkward.  I have trouble 'fitting in' at times.  It bothered me as a younger man; but, I took good advice, finding my 'niche,' a place suitable to me.  Life is a learning process; but, I've learned to gravitate toward Anthony-centric settings and activities.  I pursue my niche.

Is your online business concerned with search engine rankings (surely, you've heard about potential Google changes to come) or fiscal business strategies?  Trends often ferment online; leveraging IPOs and 'boards' is a current trend of big-boy brands, those banking on increased revenue, impressing brand consumers, and (more importantly?) investors too.

Have you ever wondered about the characteristics that make a Twitter account credible? If you are an SEO marketing professional, it is quite likely that you have, and often. Luckily for all of us, Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University took it upon themselves to conduct a study on the trustworthiness of tweets, and released a ten page report on the results of their analyses.

The domain landscape has been largely untouched for years now, but that is set to change come January. At the beginning of 2013, new top-level domains (TLDs) will be rolled out that expand the available domain options. The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and 

There's no better way to start off the week than with an incredibly important question: how many followers do you have on your Twitter account? Any business that is running a social media and SEO campaign on this integral micro-blogging site knows just how important the number of followers it has is to developing its online presence.

Athletic and cultural giant Nike had a significant misstep last week when they named a limited-edition shoe after the drink known in this country as a "Black & Tan," a layered combination of a stout and lager beer. The company was doing so to honor Ireland in the run-up to St. Patrick's Day; however, the gesture was received as an insensitive and somewhat confusing insult. Nike did not fully understand the significance of the "Black & Tan" phrase in Ireland.

Retail sales for February exceeded expectations by one-tenth of a percent, according to official figures released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The results, buttressed by strong automotive sales, were largely driven by customers using the power of the Internet.  Kenneth Wisnefski, founder and CEO of Internet marketer WebiMax, said he feels "the increase is ... due [to] consumers researching product reviews and finding price-competitive deals online."   Read more