Saturday 23 March 2013

How an Smart SEO Professionals can take full Advantage of Global Recession ?


1. Why Blogging is Important  for Web Developers and SEO Professionals ?
Blogging is basically keeping an online journal. Blogging sites have become increasingly popular, where people can write, or rant, about whatever subject they want, for anyone to read.

Over time, though, blogs have evolved from the being a personal hobby to a serious work tool. In fact, today, web designers are supposed to know much more than just how to design and build websites. Customer’s expectations have increased, and unless you are in position to choose your favorite clients, meeting these expectations requires hard work.Hence, it’s important to keep learning about the variety of design-related fields every single day — be it marketing, psychology, business, copy writing,publishing or blogging. Today blogging has become more than a way to express someone’s feeling, it has taken a turn towards social media and marketing.

From the Web developer and SEO point of view, blogging has surprisingly generated incredible web traffic to various websites. The businesses have identified the increasing scope of blogging which is why many people have started incorporating it as the most significant tool of marketing. Blogging provides innumerable advantages that are of utmost significance in present times.

There are 5 important reasons and they are as follow:-
1.Professional SEO services are designed to increase the visibility of a website and facilitate in better traffic flow along with improved profit sales return.

2.SEO professionals take the help of various SEO tools and techniques like keywords analysis, link building, on-page, off-page SEO, directory submission etc. in order to increase your webpage ranking in search indexes.

3.A website can rely on a professional SEO service to make choices that generate quality and relevant traffic.

4.Using the right set of keywords suggested by a professional SEO service will work in attracting related traffic flow to a website.

5.Link building, another essential aspect of professional SEO services, can seriously increase the popularity of a website among the top search engines.these services from cost-effective and affordable SEO service.




















2. What is the Importantance of on line chating  for an SEO Professionals ?Why a Professional  Profile Picture is very Important for SEO ?

SEO professionals are the iconic "knowledge workers." The difference between a mediocre search engine optimizer and a true "expert" is potentially millions of hits.

 Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers a real-time direct transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions. Online chat may address point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers and voice and video chat, or may be a feature of a web conferencing service.

Online chatting for SEO Professionals serves in various purpose.online chatting within itself helps people to share their intrests in a more convenient way.

For SEO Professionals, it serves as handling the work in a simpler way, and also sharing becomes easy.Social Media can be a very powerful tool as part of marketing strategy.One need to engage your audience.


SEO is a service, and like all services, it’s not just about the product. It’s also about the after sales, the pre sales, the customer relations and customer satisfaction. No matter how good you get, if you cannot keep your customer happy, then you may not be around for very long. If you check the bad press about SEO companies, it’s mostly in the area of customer service, not in their product delivery. If you want glowing referrals and repeat business then it is advisable to be service oriented and be extremely customer focused.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words right, well having a professional profile picture on your many social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is extremely important in portraying your on-line brand identity. Almost every social media site allows you to upload an image to a profile associated with an account or business. Choosing a high-quality, professional picture is an important part of your on-line identity.

Whether you work for a company, own a business, or whatever your profession or occupation may be, you should look the part. First impressions are extremely important and having a professional-looking photo can make the difference between gaining more followers and attracting more customers. Your profile is part of your overall brand. It’s alright once in awhile to post a picture or two with friends, but keep in mind that the minute you step out into the social media arena as a person or business owner, you are on stage and everyone is watching! Students and job seekers alike – have a professional photo posted on your profile and beware what you post as many companies and job recruiters are using social media tools to gather information about potential candidates.



3. How an Smart  SEO Professionals can take full Advantage of Global Recession ?

A global recession is a period of global economic slowdown.Every coin has 2 faces the one face is that:-  when consumers do not spend money hence become savers to cut company costs.It is the time period of great suffering for employees of every company. Recession is caused when consumers do not spend money hence become savers to cut company costs.

Many companies that have branches in other countries have employed global human resources professionals who manage and advise on the human resource requirements of the firms. Global HR professionals play an important role in helping employees who have been sent to foreign countries to have a smooth transition into the country. They take care of visa issues of the employee, offer advice on tax requirements, provide housing assistance and may provide cross-cultural training. Some large firms may have their in-house human resources department take care of this, while some prefer to hire global relocation companies that help the employees settle down.

Global HR professionals may also be in charge of posting vacancies, setting up interviews, and screening resumes of job applicants in foreign countries. They provide guidance and advise the team abroad and report on progress to the chief executive office at the firm’s global headquarters.

Global HR careers are challenging in nature, and job seekers of these positions must be well-rounded individuals who can take a lot of pressure at work. It may involve relocation, and job seekers should be willing to travel to other regions where the climate may not be conducive and the population may be unwelcoming. Some of the challenges that Global HR professionals face include searching of labor through outsourcing. Companies may require cheap labor offered by the local population and it is the work of the global HR professional to source for this labor. Getting the right candidates who are qualified in the job may be a big challenge due to language or cultural barriers.

At the time of recession, people prefer not to spend money so easily, thus, the concept of SEO can be utilized by a Webmaster because, the recession time will never affect the internet usage.Web master is a  multi-talented personality having sound knowledge of HTML,CSS and other web technologies as well well equipped with the knowledge of how to sell your product in market that's what people in industry call it marketing.



4. What is Productivity ? Why it is very Important for Web Developers in Global Recession ?

Productivity is an average measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of production output to what is required to produce it (inputs of capital, labor, land, energy, materials, etc.). The measure of productivity is defined as a total output per one unit of a total input. We see that as a measure of the average productivity is often difficult to interpret correctly.
These definitions are short but too general and insufficient to make the phenomenon productivity understandable. A more detailed theory of productivity is needed, which explains the phenomenon productivity and makes it comprehensible. In order to obtain a measurable form of productivity, operationalization of the concept is necessary. In explaining and operationalizing a set of production models are used. A production model is a numerical expression of the production process that is based on production data, i.e. measured data in the form of prices and quantities of inputs and outputs.
It is advisable to examine any phenomenon whatsoever only after defining the entity the phenomenon under review forms part of. Hence, productivity cannot be examined as a phenomenon independently but it is necessary to identify the entity it belongs to. Such an entity is defined as production process and its ability to generate incomes.
The benefits of high productivity are manifold. At the national level, productivity growth raises living standards because more real income improves people's ability to purchase goods and services, enjoy leisure, improve housing and education and contribute to social and environmental programs. Productivity growth is important to the firm because more real income means that the firm can meet its (perhaps growing) obligations to customers, suppliers, workers, shareholders, and governments (taxes and regulation), and still remain competitive or even improve its competitiveness in the market place.

MAIN PROCESSES OF A PRODUCING COMPANY
A producing company can be divided into sub-processes in different ways; yet, the following five are identified as main processes, each with a logic, objectives, theory and key figures of its own. It is important to examine each of them individually, yet, as a part of the whole, in order to be able to measure and understand them.

 The main processes of a company are as follows:
*real process.
*income distribution process
*production process.
*monetary process.
*market value process.

The global recession is demanding a great deal of workers worldwide. The practiceof doing "more with less" has become the modus operandi of most businesses and business areas, perhaps nowhere more so than in HR divisions.Human resources is expected to play a leading role in this environment by continuing to be more engaged than ever in developing and retaining talent, containing and reducing costs, and aligning its activities with the overall business strategy.However, according to a survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit in March 2009, HR faces numerous organizational, financial and technological obstacles, particularly during these trying times. It is also confronting a perception challenge in that many organizations continue to view the HR function as a services provider rather than a businesscritical partner. The HR discipline has evolved over the last few years to comprise professionals at all levels whose contributions are grounded in business and finance. And it is during these uncertain times that HR has an unprecedented opportunity to showcase its value as a powerful strategic collaborator. The HRM Vision for the Recession can play a significant role in the success of the HRM Function in the recession. The HRM Management Team has to set it as a priority and the vision has to be transformed into actions quickly.

The HR Recession Initiatives are not just about the cost cutting, the recession initiatives have to be focused in more areas:
-Strategic Initiative to Increase Productivity & Efficiency.
-Financials.
-Customer relationship management.
-Data services.
-Effective Communication Strategy Among Employees.



5. What is Link Building ? Why it is very Important for an Web Developers in Global Recession ?

In the field of search engine optimization, link building describes actions aimed at increasing the number and quality of inbound links to a page.It is The process of establishing relevant, inbound links to your website which help your website achieve higher ranking with the major search engines and drive targeted traffic to your site.

The search engines are far more sophisticated than they once were and are engineered to sniff out these and other ‘black hat’ SEO practices. If the search engine crawlers determine that a site has employed unethical link building practices to achieve a higher ranking, they will penalize your site severely and irrevocably bury your site making it almost impossible to find through the search engines.
Only permanent, relevant links from established sites that engage in ethical link building practices will help your site achieve better rankings with the major search engines and drive targeted traffic to your site. Link building is a key facet of any successful Internet marketing strategy because if your site features relevant, factual information that is written well, the administrators of other websites will want to link to your site because it offers their readers something of interest and value.

There are no shortcuts in a successful link building campaign and even when it is done properly, you should not expect to reap the benefits of link building overnight. Patience and persistence are the keys because it can take time to build links from credible sources. While link building is a key element of an Internet marketing strategy, link building alone will not help your site achieve its natural ranking with the search engines. Only if link building is incorporated in a comprehensive search engine optimization approach will your site gain the full benefits from links from other sites and achieve its potential.

It's no secret Google uses links to measure the authority of web pages. If a web page attracts links from other pages Google's algorithm, the software it uses to rank pages and decide which page is number one for a search result, increases the importance of a page.The reason why links are important and a good indicator of search engine placement is quite simple. Link popularity can dramatically increase traffic to a particular web site. Not only will traffic be transferred from the linking website, but also Google Page rank which is the measure of importance of your website. This is rated between 0 and 10 the higher the Page Rank the stronger the website.Linking to websites that are deemed spammy or irrelevant by search engines will certainly have a detrimental effect on future website rankings. It would also be safe to assume that you could see your website completely penalised or banished from certain search engines. Throughout any link building campaign that Ranking Solutions Ltd run for our clients, they can be assured only high quality relevant links will be added to their website.For our clients we have various link building methods like directory submissions, content writing and multiple social bookmark submissions etc. These Are methods that boost your websites rankings. (These very same white hat SEO methods have been used for our website and we have now good positions for some popular keywords like "Website Marketing Company") We can help to provide legitimate back links.



6. Why some Technical knowledge of Products is Important for SEO Professionals ?

SEO is all about optimizing the websites and web pages and pushing them in top of search engine rankings in the primary search engine giants like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Google uses its own algorithm to evaluate the pages and decides which page need to be downgraded and why. If your website have drowned in the search engine rankings, don't blame Google alone but the professionals who work on the projects are equally responsible for the debacle. If experts are to be believed, an SEO services India professional must posses certain important technical skill sets to execute the campaigns. The article is an attempt to identify major skills a search engine optimization professional should have.

Marketing Skills:
The people who work in the SEO services industry, must have relevant undergraduate degree or equivalent experience in the Internet marketing domain. Knowledge and experience in online marketing is very important if you want to promote a product, enhance people interaction and ensure improved sales prospects. An SEO professional can go places if he possess good count of marketing skills.

Writing Proficiency:
A person who works as an SEO professional need to be a good writer as well. An individual should be well-versed in writing stuff that pleases readers and audience. He should be a good writer who doesn't merely look for keyword count, or keyword density only but also knows how to persuade users to take an action on the presentation. SEOs who can write great content can do great throughout SMM services, email marketing services and other ways of communication.

Technical Background:
An individual who is the part of SEO services industry should be technically very proficient. Most of the time SEO company professionals work to optimize web pages, thus it's mandatory for them to be equally proficient in various technologies and tools used to design and develop various websites. For designing themes, SEO company India professionals should know the use of graphic software, and front-end development tools and technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript etc.

Multidimensional Talent:
A professional in the SEO/ Internet marketing services India domain should have diverse range of technical knowledge in the best manner possible. He should be able to fix 301 redirects, fixing internal duplicate content, enhance page speed and externalizing JavaScript and CSS codes for betterment. A SEO professional can only be successful in his endeavors if he retains the qualification and maximum capability to deal with the campaigns.




7.HOW A GOOD PRESENCE ON INTERNET CAN MAKE WORK EASY FOR A  SMART  SEO PROFESSIONALS  ?

A good presense on InterNet can make work easy for a  Smart  SEO Professionals as follows:-

Anyone with a business today will understand the importance of a website. An online presence is the only way to reach today’s customers. With more people shopping, hiring services, and searching for products online, your website may be the only way some of your customers do business. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the main components of a well designed website. By making the most of search engine algorithms, SEO can connect you with potential customers that can make your business more successful.

Keywords are used throughout the SEO process. Your website content, advertisements, blog posts, and article marketing should be rich with carefully selected keywords that will put you at the top of search engine rankings. By using these keywords, the search engines will easily find your site when a potential customer searches for the product or service you offer. Keywords can be a single word, but are most often a phrase of specific words that will generate powerful search engine rankings for your website. For example, an Internet marketing firm might use the keyword phrase “search engine optimisation” to generate high rankings and powerful results. Aside from keywords, SEO also involves submitting your site to website directories. Some popular directories are Yahoo!, Lycos, and Google.

Internal Linking will also help direct customers to your site. Links can be built into articles, blog posts, advertisements, and site content in order to make it easy for customers to find the product or service they are in need of. By making use of these powerful SEO strategies, your company will gain notice and enjoy high search engine rankings. SEO allows you to attract Organic Traffic to your site, which is the most cost effective way of growing your business. Once you understand the role of optimisation in your success, your business will be able to enjoy the growth you’ve envisioned.




8. What are the good tools there on Internet   ?  How a SEO Professional can take full use of them  ? Give Example with your Product / Project.

The good tools on the internet are as follow:-
1.Raven SEO tools
2.SEOmoz Pro Web App
3.BuzzStream
4.AnalyticsSEO
5.WebCEO Online
6.DIYSEO
7.Advanced Web Ranking

Raven SEO tools
The Raven suite of tools were originally designed for SEO’s (and by an SEO agency) but they now feature quite a few extra features for other disciplines of internet marketing so there’s Mailchimp integration, Facebook page manager, Twitter tool and most recently the introduction of PPC ad management features. For the purposes of this review we’ll stick to the SEO features.
Raven is a fully hosted web app, like all the tools in this comparison, and its biggest selling point is the sheer amount of integrations it provides with 3rd party tools to pull all your campaign data together. It’s got a slick interface and is developing quickly with new features added on an almost weekly basis.
Raven recently made some significant upgrades to their link management facility which resolved some of the long standing issues with that part of the system, although aside from that in the year since this report was first written the rate of development of new SEO features appears to have slowed. Raven Tools are still a great SEO resource but are now very much a complete internet marketing toolset rather than an SEO specific one.

SEOmoz Pro Web App
SEOmoz is probably the biggest SEO community around. It’s a subscription service which gives you full access to their tools including their new ‘web app’ tool- this monitors rankings, links and makes recommendations for the optimization of your site.
Like Raven it’s an evolving product and new features and pro tools are regularly added. The main attraction of SEOmoz pro membership is the access to their Linkscape data – an index of backlinks across the web which you can access via the Open Site Explorer tool or through an API.

BuzzStream
Unlike our first two tools, BuzzStream is designed specifically to aid the link building process. It may be a little unfair to put it head to head with 2 tools which encompass other parts of the SEO process but as any SEO will tell you, links are the most important bit of SEO so if you get that right, you’ve got the hardest part of the job done.
Unlike Raven BuzzStream has continued down the path of being a very specialist tool which is going to be most useful for SEO’s who are engaged in large scale link building campaigns which involve a lot of research, direct approaches to webmasters and purchasing of links.

AnalyticsSEO
AnalyticsSEO is one of a new breed of enterprise level SEO tools designed to manage the SEO process from start to finish. Analytics SEO was an appealing tool to include in the update to our review because while it boosts enterprise features its pricing starts from £99/ month, which is comparable with the other tools we’ve looked at.
AnalyticsSEO offers a wide range of tools to help with each step of the SEO process and as with Raven and SEOmoz (to a lesser extent) gives you a single management facility for all your SEO activity.

WebCEO Online
Web CEO is one of the oldest names in SEO tools having been producing a desktop SEO tool for over 10 years. Have  taking a trial run of their relatively new ‘online’ version* which has a SaaS subscription pricing model similar to the other tools we’re looking at in this report and a 100% web based interface (no software to install). Given how established WebCEO is as a tool its surprising how little you tend to hear about it in the SEO world .
Like Raven and Analytics SEO, WebCEO online is an all in one package designed to help you manage your campaigns from start to finish with keyword research, link analysis and rank tracking all under one roof.

Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking is one of the first “SEO tools” . Back when a Raven was, well a Raven, and SEO was about keyword rankings and getting listed in DMOZ Advanced Web Ranking (or AWR to the lazy writer) was powering the keyword ranking reports being produced by SEO agencies the world over. These days AWR is still the de facto solution for anyone looking for reliable a desktop based rank checking tool but with its latest incarnation the AWR team have included a number of additional features which take it beyond just a very good rank checker and position it as a contender in our all in one SEO tools comparison.

Unique to the tools we’re looking at here AWR is a desktop tool rather than an online SaaS solution. The issue with that is your data is essentially confined to one physical machine rather than being available online (in my past agency life we actually had a dedicated AWR machine which even sat in its own office!). There are also a few benefits to a desktop application – stability and uptime being the most obvious but also speed. Where Raven, SEOmoz et al can take days to return your ranking results, AWR will start updating as soon as you setup your report. There’s also no limit to the number of keywords or ‘projects’ you can setup with any version of AWR, unlike most of the other tools here which cost more the more you use them.
Web SEO Analytics is a key player and one of the most innovative online marketing platforms providing pioneering SEO tools, expert contribution on SEO industry and the search engine optimization techniques. We offer a wide-range of SEO tools, from keyword research, website analysis, page and keywords analysis to backlink and competition analysis tools. Whether you are an SEO Agency, a SEO professional or a Webmaster, WSA provides Online Marketing companies, Developers & SEM professionals unique and efficient SEO tools and techniques that generate solid results for your SEM campaign.



9.What is Branding ? What is Co-Branding ? How will you Brand  your Product / Project?

To understand branding, it is important to know what brands are. A brand is the idea or image of a specific product or service that consumers connect with, by identifying the name, logo, slogan, or design of the company who owns the idea or image. Branding is when that idea or image is marketed so that it is recognizable by more and more people, and identified with a certain service or product when there are many other companies offering the same service or product. Advertising professionals work on branding not only to build brand recognition, but also to build good reputations and a set of standards to which the company should strive to maintain or surpass. Branding is an important part of Internet commerce, as branding allows companies to build their reputations as well as expand beyond the original product and service, and add to the revenue generated by the original brand.
When working on branding, or building a brand, companies that are using web pages and search engine optimization have a few details to work out before being able to build a successful brand. Coordinating domain names and brand names are an important part of finding and keeping visitors and clients, as well as branding a new company. Coordination of a domain name and brand names lends identification to the idea or image of a specific product or service, which in turn lets visitors easily discovery the new brand.
Branding is also a way to build an important company asset, which is a good reputation. Whether a company has no reputation, or a less than stellar reputation, branding can help change that. Branding can build an expectation about the company services or products, and can encourage the company to maintain that expectation, or exceed them, bringing better products and services to the market place.

Co-branding refers to several different marketing arrangements:
Co-branding, also called brand partnership, is when two companies form an alliance to work together, creating marketing synergy.
Co-branding is an arrangement that associates a single product or service with more than one brand name, or otherwise associates a product with someone other than the principal producer. The typical co-branding agreement involves two or more companies acting in cooperation to associate any of various logos, color schemes, or brand identifiers to a specific product that is contractually designated for this purpose. The object for this is to combine the strength of two brands, in order to increase the premium consumers are willing to pay, make the product or service more resistant to copying by private label manufacturers, or to combine the different perceived properties associated with these brands with a single product.



10 What is Webmaster tools ?  Explain Bing and Yahoo Webmaster tools ?

Webmaster Tools is tool which is given by google no-charge web service for webmasters.It allows webmasters to check indexing status and optimize visibility of their websites.
It has tools that let the webmasters:
1.Submit and check a sitemap
2.Check and set the crawl rate, and view statistics about how Googlebot accesses a particular site
3.Generate and check a robots.txt file. It also helps to discover pages that are blocked in robots.txt by chance.
4.List internal and external pages that link to the site
5.Get a list of broken links for the site
6.See what keyword searches on Google led to the site being listed in the SERPs, and the click through rates of such listings
7.View statistics about how Google indexes the site, and if it found any errors while doing it
8.Set a preferred domain (e.g. prefer example.com over www.example.com or vice versa), which determines how the site URL is displayed in SERPs.

BING and YAHOO WEBMASTER TOOL:Bing Webmaster Tools now offers SEO reporting based on a set of approximately 15 SEO Best Practices to help you get started in some of the most common page-level recommendations. You can find this information can by clicking on SEO Reports, found under the Reports & Data section in the navigation menu.
The SEO Reports are generated automatically every other week and be available through your webmaster account.  Using the same set of SEO Best Practices as the on-demand SEO Analyzer tool, we create bulk reports for all sites listed in your Webmaster account.
Other than checking the reports for what should be looked at or worked on, there is nothing to do as our system takes care of scanning all pages (that appear in our index) and reporting automatically.

SEO ANALYSIS DETAILS
The SEO Reports provide aggregated counts of all the issues found, across the entire website scanned. Clicking on an item in the SEO Suggestions list takes you to SEO Analysis Detail page where we explain the issue and show a sample of pages affected by this non-compliance with the SEO Best Practice.
It has been a long time coming but the 2nd and 3rd largest search engines are merging their operations and services more and more. Very soon I predict that Yahoo will simply morph into Bing and Yahoo will be no more. Only time will tell but there are many factors leading me to believe this. Funny enough the most recent stats from ComScore May 2011 for the US search engine usage market shows that Yahoo still commands 2nd position with 15.9% of searches followed by Bing with 14.1% of searches. Of course Google is kingpin by far with 65.5% of all search queries in the US. The reason it is ‘funny’ because 2nd position Yahoo is being engulfed and swallowed by Bing who is smaller (although only slightly).
With the completion of algorithmic transition to Bing, Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing Webmaster Tools. Webmasters should now be using the Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure that their websites continue to get high quality organic search traffic from Bing and Yahoo!.
The additional results from Yahoo included in your Bing Webmaster Tools will affect your ‘traffic summary’ report and your ‘page traffic’ report. Impressions should go up due to the combined data as of today and click should also go up due to the same reason. Inside the ‘rank and traffic stats’ page in Bing Webmaster Tools you will see both Bing and Yahoo logo’s living side by side like a happy family.

-- 
Regards,

Meghana Kumari [ B. Tech ECE ] 
Software Engineer / Blogmaster
On Line Assistence :

A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises,



WHAT IS A LOGO ?

A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. Logos are either purely graphic  (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization (a logotype or wordmark).
In the days of hot metal typesetting, a logotype was a uniquely set and arranged typeface or colophon. At the level of mass communication and in common usage a company's logo is today often 

synonymous with its trademark or brand.

















WHAT IS IMAGE OPTIMIZATION IN SEO ?
Image optimization is a process where you can optimize your image by the using image alt tag. It is the process of on-page optimization and promotion. Image can be an successful SEO source. 

properly optimizing images involves using the "Alt" attribute when adding images to your site. Basically Google Crawlers cannot read images, so you add the "Alt" attribute to tell these crawlers 

what it is. What you place here also is what is shown in the event the image doesn't load (say someone is using a web browser that is not compatible for some reason).
in other words Image Optimization is the preparation of an image for use on the internet. Includes reducing file size for quick download while maintaining good quality for viewing at different 

screen resolutions.

TECHNIQUES:
 * Image Relevance :
                                  Image relevancy is important when it comes to image optimization for SEO. An image of a train on a page related to Ferrari will do you no good. I know its common sense     

                               but this step is so important that I just can’t miss it out.
 *Alt Tag :
                 The Alt tag is probably the most important image optimization factor. Alt stands for alternate. The text in the alt tag is displayed in place of the image if the image can not be shown or    

                is taking too long to load. Most of the major search engines are text-based, i.e they can not read images and videos. The location of your images appears as an empty space to the search    

               engines. These empty spaces are not in any way good for your overall SEO. The alt tag not only tells the search engines that there is an image placed here but also informs it about the       

              topic of your image.
                 A good practice for the ALT tag is to keep your alt tags short but descriptive. Fill your alt tags with search engine friendly information but don’t try to go too far. For example, the alt tag  

               for a picture of a birthday party should be something like this:  alt=”my son ronin second birthday party”

* Image Size and hosting :
                              Image size is a very crutial factor for your overall user experience. Images can make your page heavy. Put up a webpage that takes more than 10 seconds to load, and your users     

                             will escape faster  than you can say “back button”. After the recent Panda update, the loading time of pages has become a vital part for your SEO ranking as the total time of         

                           visit has become more important as a SEO algorithm. So its important to keep your images low in bytes. Yahoo Smushit is a great tool to wipe out the excess bytes from your          

                          images making them lighter.

                             Image hosting is another important factor specially when it comes to driving traffic from Google Image Search. The factors on which the images for Google Image Search are      

                          chosen is kept hidden but some say that image hosting is one of the important factors for the choice. It is said that images hosted on the same domain as the text are given              

                          more value than the images hosted at another domain like a free image hosting site. Another important algorithm for Google Image Search is how the images are blended with      

                         the text on the page. 

*File name :
                        Just as keywords are important in url, the same goes for images. Keyword rich file names can help a SE determine relevancy. Avoid using default image file names like,                        

                       “DSC0019.jpg” as it does not give much information about the image. Use descriptive filenames with keywords separated by “-” (hyphen). For example, “steve-jobs-on-the-                 

                      launching-of-iphone.jpg”. Specially if you are using SEO friendly images plugin for WordPress, it’s very useful as it converts image file name into ALT tag.

*Title Tag and image linking :
                                Images are eye-catching so are perfect for linking. But proper image linking techniques can offer even better results. One of the basic tips for image linking is to avoid linking    

                             your images directly. 
                               Always use relevant anchor texts whenever linking your images. This is even more effective for your SEO when embedding images in a guest post or other pages intended to       

                           get a link back to your site.
                             Remember to use a title tag whenever linking your images. Title tag provides a tool tip when you hover your cursor over a link. Use relevant keywords and SEO friendly                 

                            description and your title tags will rock.


WHAT IS BRANDING ?

Brand is the "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."Initially, Branding was adopted to differentiate one 

person's cattle from another's by means of a distinctive symbol burned into the animal's skin with a hot iron stamp, and was subsequently used in business, marketing and advertising. A modern 

example of a brand is Coca Cola which belongs to the Coca-Cola Company. A brand is the most valuable fixed asset of a Corporation.
Marque or make are often used to denote a brand of motor vehicle, which may be distinguished from a car model. A concept brand is a brand that is associated with an abstract concept, like breast 

cancer awareness or environmentalism, rather than a specific product, service, or business. A commodity brand is a brand associated with a commodity. Got milk? is an example of a commodity 

brand.

Concepts

Proper branding can result in higher sales of not only one product, but on other products associated with that brand. For example, if a customer loves Pillsbury biscuits and trusts the brand, he or 

she is more likely to try other products offered by the company such as chocolate chip cookies. Brand is the personality that identifies a product, service or company (name, term, sign, symbol, or 

design, or combination of them) and how it relates to key constituencies: customers, staff, partners, investors etc.
Some people distinguish the psychological aspect, brand associations like thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and so on that become linked to the brand, of a 

brand from the experiential aspect. The experiential aspect consists of the sum of all points of contact with the brand and is known as the brand experience. The brand experience is a brand's action 

perceived by a person. The psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic construct created within the minds of people, consisting of all the information and 

expectations associated with a product, service or the company(ies) providing them.
People engaged in branding seek to develop or align the expectations behind the brand experience, creating the impression that a brand associated with a product or service has certain qualities or 

characteristics that make it special or unique. A brand is therefore one of the most valuable elements in an advertising theme, as it demonstrates what the brand owner is able to offer in the 

marketplace. The art of creating and maintaining a brand is called brand management. Orientation of the whole organization towards its brand is called brand orientation. The brand orientation is 

developed in responsiveness to market intelligence.
Careful brand management seeks to make the product or services relevant to the target audience. Brands should be seen as more than the difference between the actual cost of a product and its 

selling price - they represent the sum of all valuable qualities of a product to the consumer.
A brand which is widely known in the marketplace acquires brand recognition. When brand recognition builds up to a point where a brand enjoys a critical mass of positive sentiment in the 

marketplace, it is said to have achieved brand franchise. Brand recognition is most successful when people can state a brand without being explicitly exposed to the company's name, but rather 

through visual signifiers like logos, slogans, and colors. For example, Disney has been successful at branding with their particular script font (originally created for Walt Disney's "signature" logo), 

which it used in the logo for go.com.
Consumers may look on branding as an aspect of products or services, as it often serves to denote a certain attractive quality or characteristic (see also brand promise). From the perspective of 

brand owners, branded products or services also command higher prices. Where two products resemble each other, but one of the products has no associated branding (such as a generic, store-

branded product), people may often select the more expensive branded product on the basis of the quality of the brand or the reputation of the brand owner.


BRAND AWARENESS
Brand awareness refers to customers' ability to recall and recognize the brand under different conditions and link to the brand name, logo, jingles and so on to certain associations in memory. It 

consists of both brand recognition and brand recall. It helps the customers to understand to which product or service category the particular brand belongs and what products and services are sold 

under the brand name. It also ensures that customers know which of their needs are satisfied by the brand through its products (Keller). Brand awareness is of critical importance since customers 

will not consider your brand if they are not aware of it.
There are various levels of brand awareness that require different levels and combinations of brand recognition and recall. Top-of-Mind is the goal of most companies. Top-of-mind awareness 

occurs when your brand is what pops into a consumers mind when asked to name brands in a product category. For example, when someone is asked to name a type of facial tissue, the common 

answer is “Kleenex,” which is a top-of-mind brand. Aided Awareness occurs when a consumer is shown or reads a list of brands, and expresses familiarity with your brand only after they hear or 

see it as a type of memory aide. Strategic Awareness occurs when your brand is not only top-of-mind to consumers, but also has distinctive qualities that stick out to consumers as making it better 

than the other brands in your market. The distinctions that set your product apart from the competition is also known as the Unique Selling Point or USP.

BRAND ELEMENTS
Brands typically are made up of various elements, such as:
*Name: The word or words used to identify a company, product, service, or concept.
*Logo: The visual trademark that identifies the brand.
*Tagline or Catchphrase: "The Quicker Picker Upper" is associated with Bounty paper towels. "Can you hear me now" is an important part of the Verizon brand.
*Graphics: The dynamic ribbon is a trademarked part of Coca-Cola's brand.
*Shapes: The distinctive shapes of the Coca-Cola bottle and of the Volkswagen Beetle are trademarked elements of those brands.
*Colors: Owens-Corning is the only brand of fiberglass insulation that can be pink.
*Sounds: A unique tune or set of notes can denote a brand. NBC's chimes are a famous example.
*Scents: The rose-jasmine-musk scent of Chanel No. 5 is trademarked.
*Tastes: Kentucky Fried Chicken has trademarked its special recipe of eleven herbs and spices for fried chicken.
*Movements: Lamborghini has trademarked the upward motion of its car doors.
*Customer relationship management


CLOBAL BRAND VARIABLES
 #Brand name
Relationship between trade marks and brand .The brand name is quite often used interchangeably with "brand", although it is more correctly used to specifically denote written or spoken linguistic 

elements of any product. In this context a "brand name" constitutes a type of trademark, if the brand name exclusively identifies the brand owner as the commercial source of products or services. 

A brand owner may seek to protect proprietary rights in relation to a brand name through trademark registration and such trademarks are called "Registered Trademarks". Advertising 

spokespersons have also become part of some brands, for example: Mr. Whipple of Charmin toilet tissue and Tony the Tiger of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.

#Types of brand names
Brand names come in many styles.A few include:
Initialism: A name made of initials such, as UPS or IBM
Descriptive: Names that describe a product benefit or function, such as Whole Foods or Airbus
Alliteration and rhyme: Names that are fun to say and stick in the mind, such as Reese's Pieces or Dunkin' Donuts
Evocative: Names that evoke a relevant vivid image, such as Amazon or Crest
Neologisms: Completely made-up words, such as Wii or Kodak
Foreign word: Adoption of a word from another language, such as Volvo or Samsung
Founders' names: Using the names of real people, (especially a founder's name), such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell or Disney
Geography: Many brands are named for regions and landmarks, such as Cisco and Fuji Film
Personification: Many brands take their names from myths, such as Nike; or from the minds of ad execs, such as Betty Crocker
The act of associating a product or service with a brand has become part of pop culture. Most products have some kind of brand identity, from common table salt to designer jeans. A brandnomer 

is a brand name that has colloquially become a generic term for a product or service, such as Band-Aid, Nylon, or Kleenex—which are often used to describe any brand of adhesive bandage; any 

type of hosiery; or any brand of facial tissue respectively. Xerox, for example, has become synonymous with the word "copy".

#Brand identity
The outward expression of a brand – including its name, trademark, communications, and visual appearance – is brand identity.[16] Because the identity is assembled by the brand owner, it reflects 

how the owner wants the consumer to perceive the brand – and by extension the branded company, organization, product or service. This is in contrast to the brand image, which is a customer's 

mental picture of a brand.The brand owner will seek to bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity.
Effective brand names build a connection between the brand personality as it is perceived by the target audience and the actual product/service. The brand name should be conceptually on target 

with the product/service (what the company stands for). Furthermore, the brand name should be on target with the brand demographic. Typically, sustainable brand names are easy to remember, 

transcend trends and have positive connotations. Brand identity is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolizes the brand's differentiation from competitors.
Brand identity is what the owner wants to communicate to its potential consumers. However, over time, a product's brand identity may acquire (evolve), gaining new attributes from consumer 

perspective but not necessarily from the marketing communications an owner percolates to targeted consumers. Therefore, brand associations become handy to check the consumer's perception of 

the brand.
Brand identity needs to focus on authentic qualities – real characteristics of the value and brand promise being provided and sustained by organizational and/or production characteristics.

#Visual brand identity
The visual brand identity manual for Mobil Oil (developed by Chermayeff & Geismar), one of the first visual identities to integrate logotype, icon, alphabet, color palette, and station architecture.
The recognition and perception of a brand is highly influenced by its visual presentation. A brand’s visual identity is the overall look of its communications. Effective visual brand identity is 

achieved by the consistent use of particular visual elements to create distinction, such as specific fonts, colors, and graphic elements. At the core of every brand identity is a brand mark, or logo. In 

the United States, brand identity and logo design naturally grew out of the Modernist movement in the 1950s and greatly drew on the principles of that movement – simplicity (Mies van der 

Rohe’s principle of "Less is more") and geometric abstraction. These principles can be observed in the work of the pioneers of the practice of visual brand identity design, such as Paul Rand, 

Chermayeff & Geismar and Saul Bass.
Color is a particularly important element of visual brand identity and color mapping provides an effective way of ensuring color contributes to differentiation in a visually cluttered marketplace 

(O'Connor, 2011).[20]

#Brand trust
Brand trust is the intrinsic 'believability' that any entity evokes. In the commercial world, the intangible aspect of Brand trust impacts the behavior and performance of its business stakeholders in 

many intriguing ways. It creates the foundation of a strong brand connect with all stakeholders, converting simple awareness to strong commitment. This, in turn, metamorphoses normal people 

who have an indirect or direct stake in the organization into devoted ambassadors, leading to concomitant advantages like easier acceptability of brand extensions, perception of premium, and 

acceptance of temporary quality deficiencies.
The Brand Trust Report is a syndicated primary research that has elaborated on this metric of brand trust. It is a result of action, behavior, communication and attitude of an entity, with the most 

Trust results emerging from its action component. Action of the entity is most important in creating trust in all those audiences who directly engage with the brand, the primary experience 

carrying primary audiences. However, the tools of communications play a vital role in the transferring the trust experience to audiences which have never experienced the brand, the all important 

secondary audience.

#Brand parity
Brand parity is the perception of the customers that some brands are equivalent.This means that shoppers will purchase within a group of accepted brands rather than choosing one specific brand. 

When brand parity is present, quality is often not a major concern because consumers believe that only minor quality differences exist.

EXPANDING ROLE OF A BRAND
It was meant to make identifying and differentiating a product easier, while also providing the benefit of letting the name sell a second rate product. Over time, brands came to embrace a 

performance or benefit promise, for the product, certainly, but eventually also for the company behind the brand. Today, brand plays a much bigger role. Brands have been co-opted as powerful 

symbols in larger debates about economics, social issues, and politics. The power of brands to communicate a complex message quickly and with emotional impact and the ability of brands to 

attract media attention, make them ideal tools in the hands of activists. Cultural conflict over a brand's meaning have also been shown to influence the diffusion of an innovation.

BRANDING STRATEGIES
1.Company name
Often, especially in the industrial sector, it is just the company's name which is promoted (leading to[citation needed] one of the most powerful statements of branding: saying just before the 

company's downgrading, "No one ever got fired for buying IBM"). This approach has not worked as well for General Motors, which recently overhauled how its corporate brand relates to the 

product brands. Exactly how the company name relates to product and services names is known as brand architecture. Decisions about company names and product names and their relationship 

depends on more than a dozen strategic considerations.
In this case a strong brand name (or company name) is made the vehicle for a range of products (for example, Mercedes-Benz or Black & Decker) or a range of subsidiary brands (such as 

Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Flake or Cadbury Fingers in the United States).

2.Individual branding
Each brand has a separate name (such as Seven-Up, Kool-Aid or Nivea Sun (Beiersdorf)), which may compete against other brands from the same company (for example, Persil, Omo, Surf and 

Lynx are all owned by Unilever).

3.Attitude branding and iconic brands
Attitude branding is the choice to represent a larger feeling, which is not necessarily connected with the product or consumption of the product at all. Marketing labeled as attitude branding 

include that of Nike, Starbucks, The Body Shop, Safeway, and Apple Inc.. In the 2000 book No Logo,Naomi Klein describes attitude branding as a "fetish strategy".
"A great brand raises the bar -- it adds a greater sense of purpose to the experience, whether it's the challenge to do your best in sports and fitness, or the affirmation that the cup of coffee you're 

drinking really matters." - Howard Schultz (president, CEO, and chairman of Starbucks)


The color, letter font and style of the Coca-Cola and Diet Coca-Cola logos in English were copied into matching Hebrew logos to maintain brand identity in Israel.
Iconic brands are defined as having aspects that contribute to consumer's self-expression and personal identity. Brands whose value to consumers comes primarily from having identity value are 

said to be "identity brands". Some of these brands have such a strong identity that they become more or less cultural icons which makes them "iconic brands". Examples are: Apple, Nike and 

Harley Davidson. Many iconic brands include almost ritual-like behaviour in purchasing or consuming the products.
There are four key elements to creating iconic brands (Holt 2004):
"Necessary conditions" - The performance of the product must at least be acceptable, preferably with a reputation of having good quality.
"Myth-making" - A meaningful storytelling fabricated by cultural insiders. These must be seen as legitimate and respected by consumers for stories to be accepted.
"Cultural contradictions" - Some kind of mismatch between prevailing ideology and emergent undercurrents in society. In other words a difference with the way consumers are and how they wish 

they were.
"The cultural brand management process" - Actively engaging in the myth-making process in making sure the brand maintains its position as an icon.

4."No-brand" branding
Recently a number of companies have successfully pursued "no-brand" strategies by creating packaging that imitates generic brand simplicity. Examples include the Japanese company Muji, 

which means "No label" in English (from ???? – "Mujirushi Ryohin" – literally, "No brand quality goods"), and the Florida company No-Ad Sunscreen. Although there is a distinct Muji brand, 

Muji products are not branded. This no-brand strategy means that little is spent on advertisement or classical marketing and Muji's success is attributed to the word-of-mouth, a simple shopping 

experience and the anti-brand movement.[26][27][28] "No brand" branding may be construed as a type of branding as the product is made conspicuous through the absence of a brand name. 

"Tapa Amarilla" or "Yellow Cap" in Venezuela during the 1980s is another good example of no-brand strategy. It was simply recognized by the color of the cap of this cleaning products company.

5. Derived brands
In this case the supplier of a key component, used by a number of suppliers of the end-product, may wish to guarantee its own position by promoting that component as a brand in its own right. 

The most frequently quoted example is Intel, which positions itself in the PC market with the slogan (and sticker) "Intel Inside".

6.Brand extension and brand dilution
The existing strong brand name can be used as a vehicle for new or modified products; for example, many fashion and designer companies extended brands into fragrances, shoes and accessories, 

home textile, home decor, luggage, (sun-) glasses, furniture, hotels, etc.
Mars extended its brand to ice cream, Caterpillar to shoes and watches, Michelin to a restaurant guide, Adidas and Puma to personal hygiene. Dunlop extended its brand from tires to other rubber 

products such as shoes, golf balls, tennis racquets and adhesives. Frequently, the product is no different than what else is on the market, except a brand name marking.
There is a difference between brand extension and line extension. A line extension is when a current brand name is used to enter a new market segment in the existing product class, with new 

varieties or flavors or sizes. When Coca-Cola launched "Diet Coke" and "Cherry Coke" they stayed within the originating product category: non-alcoholic carbonated beverages. Procter & 

Gamble (P&G) did likewise extending its strong lines (such as Fairy Soap) into neighboring products (Fairy Liquid and Fairy Automatic) within the same category, dish washing detergents.
The risk of over-extension is brand dilution where the brand loses its brand associations with a market segment, product area, or quality, price or cachet.

7.Multi-brands
Alternatively, in a market that is fragmented amongst a number of brands a supplier can choose deliberately to launch totally new brands in apparent competition with its own existing strong 

brand (and often with identical product characteristics); simply to soak up some of the share of the market which will in any case go to minor brands. The rationale is that having 3 out of 12 

brands in such a market will give a greater overall share than having 1 out of 10 (even if much of the share of these new brands is taken from the existing one). In its most extreme manifestation, a 

supplier pioneering a new market which it believes will be particularly attractive may choose immediately to launch a second brand in competition with its first, in order to pre-empt others entering 

the market. This strategy is widely known as Multi Brand Strategy.
Individual brand names naturally allow greater flexibility by permitting a variety of different products, of differing quality, to be sold without confusing the consumer's perception of what business 

the company is in or diluting higher quality products.
Once again, Procter & Gamble is a leading exponent of this philosophy, running as many as ten detergent brands in the US market. This also increases the total number of "facings" it receives on 

supermarket shelves. Sara Lee, on the other hand, uses it to keep the very different parts of the business separate — from Sara Lee cakes through Kiwi polishes to L'Eggs pantyhose. In the hotel 

business, Marriott uses the name Fairfield Inns for its budget chain (and Ramada uses Rodeway for its own cheaper hotels).
Cannibalization is a particular problem of a Multi Brand Strategy approach, in which the new brand takes business away from an established one which the organization also owns. This may be 

acceptable (indeed to be expected) if there is a net gain overall. Alternatively, it may be the price the organization is willing to pay for shifting its position in the market; the new product being one 

stage in this process.

7.Private labels
Private label brands, also called own brands, or store brands have become popular. Where the retailer has a particularly strong identity (such as Marks & Spencer in the UK clothing sector) this 

"own brand" may be able to compete against even the strongest brand leaders, and may outperform those products that are not otherwise strongly branded.

8.Individual and organizational brands
There are kinds of branding that treat individuals and organizations as the products to be branded. Personal branding treats persons and their careers as brands. The term is thought to have been 

first used in a 1997 article by Tom Peters. Faith branding treats religious figures and organizations as brands. Religious media expert Phil Cooke has written that faith branding handles the 

question of how to express faith in a media-dominated culture. Nation branding works with the perception and reputation of countries as brands.

9.Crowd sourcing branding
These are brands that are created by the people for the business, which is opposite to the traditional method where the business create a brand. This type of method minimizes the risk of brand 

failure, since the people that might reject the brand in the traditional method are the ones who are participating in the branding process.

10.Nation branding (place branding and public diplomacy)
Nation branding is a field of theory and practice which aims to measure, build and manage the reputation of countries (closely related to place branding). Some approaches applied, such as an 

increasing importance on the symbolic value of products, have led countries to emphasise their distinctive characteristics. The branding and image of a nation-state "and the successful transference 

of this image to its exports - is just as important as what they actually produce and sell."


 

DEFINATION OF BRANDING ?

Brand is the "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers." Initially, Branding was adopted to differentiate one 

person's cattle from another's by means of a distinctive symbol burned into the animal's skin with a hot iron stamp, and was subsequently used in business, marketing and advertising. A modern 

example of a brand is Coca Cola which belongs to the Coca-Cola Company. A brand is the most valuable fixed asset of a Corporation.


WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ?

Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that 

attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, 

third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself. Hence, this form of marketing is driven by word-of-mouth, meaning it results in earned media rather than paid media.
Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and often, improved customer 

service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns.

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
 1.Social networking websites and blogs
Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build relationships. When products or companies join those sites, people can interact with the product or company. 

That interaction feels personal to users because of their previous experiences with social networking site interactions.
Social networking sites and blogs allow individual followers to “retweet” or “repost” comments made by the product being promoted. By repeating the message, all of the users connections are able 

to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Social networking sites act as word of mouth. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more 

traffic is brought to the product/company.
Through social networking sites, products/companies can have conversations and interactions with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and 

potential customers. Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience.
Social networking sites also include a vast amount of information about what products and services prospective clients might be interested in. Through the use of new Semantic Analysis 

technologies, marketers can detect buying signals, such as content shared by people and questions posted online. Understanding of buying signals can help sales people target relevant prospects 

and marketers run micro-targeted campaigns.

2.Mobile phones
Mobile phone usage has also become beneficial for social media marketing. Today, many cell phones have social networking capabilities: individuals are notified of any happenings on social 

networking sites through their cell phones, in real-time. This constant connection to social networking sites means products and companies can constantly remind and update followers about their 

capabilities, uses, importance, etc. Because cell phones are connected to social networking sites, advertisements are always in sight. Also many companies are now putting QR codes along with 

products for individuals to access the company website or online services with their smart-phones.

TACTICS

1.Twitter
Twitter allows companies to promote their products on an individual level. The use of a product can be explained in short messages that followers are more likely to read. These messages appear on 

followers’ home pages. Messages can link to the product’s website, Facebook profile, photos, videos, etc. This link provides followers the opportunity to spend more time interacting with the 

product online. This interaction can create a loyal connection between product and individual and can also lead to larger advertising opportunities. Twitter promotes a product in real-time and 

brings customers in.

2.Facebook
Facebook profiles are far more detailed than Twitter accounts. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions. Videos can show when a product can be used as well as how 

to use it. These also can include testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product’s Twitter page as well as send out event 

reminders. Facebook promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in.
As marketers see more value in social media marketing, advertisers continue to increase sequential ad spend in social by 25%. Strategies to extend the reach with Sponsored Stories and acquire 

new fans with Facebook ads contribute to an uptick in spending across the site. The study attributes 84% of "engagement" or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising. Today, brands 

increase fan counts on average of 9% monthly, increasing their fan base by two-times the amount annually.

3.Foursquare
Foursquare is a location based social networking website, where users can check into locations via their smartphones. Foursquare allows businesses to create a page or create a new/claim an 

existing venue. A good marketing strategy for businesses to increase footfall or retain loyal customers includes offering incentives such as discounts or free food/beverages for people checking into 

their location or special privileges for the mayor of that location.

4.Google+
Google+, in addition to providing the profiles and features of Facebook, is also able to integrate with the Google search engine. Other Google products are also integrated, such as Google 

Adwords and Google Maps. With the development of Google Personalized Search and other location-based search services, Google+ allows for targeted advertising methods, navigation services, 

and other forms of location-based marketing and promotion.

5.Instagram
Instagram is a free photo-sharing program and social network that was launched in October 2010. The service enables users to take a photo, apply a digital filter to it, and then share it with other 

Instagram users they are connected to on the social network as well as on a variety of social networking services.As of September 2012, Instagram had 100 million registered users.

6.Blogs
Everyday there are more reasons for companies to use blogging platforms for their social media repertoire. Platforms like LinkedIn creates an environment for companies and clients to connect 

online. Companies that recognize the need for information, originality, and accessibility employ blogs to make their products popular and unique, and ultimately reach out to consumers who are 

privy to social media.
Blogs allow a product or company to provide longer descriptions of products or services. The longer description can include reasoning and uses. It can also include testimonials and can link to and 

from Facebook, Twitter and many social network and blog pages. Blogs can be updated frequently and are promotional techniques for keeping customers. Other promotional uses are acquiring 

followers and subscribers and direct them to your social network pages.
In a similar fashion, online communities benefit businesses because the online communities enable the businesses to reach the clients of other businesses using the platform. These online 

environments can be accessed by virtually anyone; therefore consumers are invited to be a part of the creative process. To allow firms to measure their standing in the corporate world, Glassdoor is 

a site where employees can place evaluations of their companies.
Some businesses opt out of integrating social media platforms into their traditional marketing regimen because their employees dislike such isolated online environments. There are also specific 

corporate standards that apply when interacting online. Other corporations fear that the general public have too much power over how their marketing is perceived, due to the accessibility of 

Internet-retrieved information. To ensure having the advantage in a business-consumer relationship, businesses have to be aware of four key assets that consumers maintain: information, 

involvement, community, and control.

7.LinkedIn
LinkedIn, a professional business-related networking site, allows companies to create professional profiles for themselves as well as their business to network and meet others. Through the use of 

widgets, members can promote their various social networking activities, such as Twitter stream or blog entries of their product pages, onto their LinkedIn profile page. LinkedIn provides its 

members the opportunity to generate sales leads and business partners. Members can use “Company Pages” similar to Facebook pages to create an area that will allow business owners to promote 

their products or services and be able to interact with their customers.

8.Yelp
Yelp consists of a comprehensive online index of business profiles. Businesses are searchable by location, similar to Yellow Pages. The website is operational in seven different countries, including 

the United States and Canada. Business account holders are allowed to create, share, and edit business profiles. They may post information such as the business location, contact information, 

pictures, and service information. The website further allows individuals to write, post reviews about businesses and rate them on a five-point scale. Messaging and talk features are further made 

available for general members of the website, serving to guide thoughts and opinions.

9.YouTube
YouTube is another popular avenue; advertisements are done in a way to suit the target audience. The type of language used in the commercials and the ideas used to promote the product reflect 

the audience's style and taste. Also, the ads on this platform are usually in sync with the content of the video requested, this is another advantage YouTube brings for advertisers. Certain ads are 

presented with certain videos since the content is relevant. Promotional opportunities such as sponsoring a video is also possible on YouTube, “for example, a user who searches for a YouTube 

video on dog training may be presented with a sponsored video from a dog toy company in results along with other videos.”Youtube also enable publishers to earn money through Youtube Partner 

Program.

MARKETING TECHNIQUES
 *Targeting,
 * COBRAs, and 
 *eWOM

Social media marketing involves the use of social networks, COBRAs and eWOM to successfully advertise online. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter provide advertisers with 

information about the likes and dislikes of their consumers.This technique is crucial, as it provides the businesses with a “target audience”.With social networks, information relevant to the user’s 

likes is available to businesses; who then advertise accordingly.
Consumer’s online brand related activities (COBRAs) is another method used by advertisers to promote their products. Activities such as uploading a picture of your “new Converse sneakers to 

Facebook” is an example of a COBRA.\ Another technique for social media marketing is electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Electronic recommendations and appraisals are a convenient 

manner to have a product promoted via “consumer-to-consumer interactions ". An example of eWOM would be an online hotel review; the hotel company can have two possible outcomes based 

on their service. A good service would result in a positive review which gets the hotel free advertisement via social media, however a poor service will result in a negative consumer review which 

can potentially ruin the company's reputation.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TOOLS
Besides research tools, various companies provide specialized platforms and tools for social media marketing:
*Social media measurement
*Social network aggregation,
*Social bookmarking,
*Social analytics,
*Automation,
*Social media,
*Blog marketing,
*Validation,


--
Regards,

Meghana Kumari [ B. Tech ECE ] 
Software Engineer / Blogmaster
On Line Assistence :