Social Media analytics

Here is my list of top free social media monitoring and analysis tools.
I wont be going in to much detail on which i like most, in the end everyone has different goals.  It is always best to try them all to see which one suits you best.

1. Socialmention  (easy to use no registration needed).

2. Postrank  ( recently acquired by google, in beta test).

3. Google Alerts (easy to use similar to Socialmention).

4. Twitter Search (my favorite , monitor what is being said about you on Twitter).

5.Twitalyzer ( great tool if you want to analyze your Twitter data). 

6. A URL Shortening Service is a must when posting to Twitter to ensure that your message and link fit within the 140 character limit. Make sure you select a service such as bit.ly or ow.ly that allows for analytics and then stick to the service so you can track and monitor your contents performance.

#SEO #marketing #Social Media  #resources #Analytics #tools

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The more drop dead gorgeous it is, the more simplistic to use it is, the better for them. But there are other important website factors to consider, and if your site doesn’t practice good SEO strategy a larger number of potential users won’t find your beautiful website in the first place.

When a keyword or key phrase is punched into a search engine, such as Google,Yahoo, Bing the search engine sends its crawlers out into the web to find the most useful and relevant websites with information relevant to the search. These crawlers aren’t looking for pretty pictures they’re looking for good old fashioned text: original, relevant, reliable information.

Let’s face it, calling them crawlers, personifies them as living, thinking organisms but we know that they aren’t. They are basic limited functions impeded in their scope. Your website could be a modern marvel of design, navigation and imagery, but if it does not contain enough text, the crawlers simply will not find it, and subsequently many potential users will not find it either.

Many people want a landing image or a main page which is one big splash page that is all made up of flash. This isn’t necessarily good for SEO, because search engines can’t read flash, and yet a great deal of you still want to use the technique.

If you absolutely must use the technique, why not design your landing image or splash page to end at the fold, and include useful text content or text navigation links beneath the fold? For those of you who aren’t aware the fold refers to the area of a page which is visible to the user without the need to scroll down.

This is a great way to find a happy medium between a glorious main image and a good SEO strategy: simply stick all of the juicy, search engine enticing text content beneath the fold.

When it comes time to pick and choose where you post, this chart can help you decide what’s appropriate for you.

Steve Madden’s mobile app intergates Facebook likes so shoppers can share via mobile devices (via Mobile Marketer).

Much of media consumption is shifting to mobile devices, social media is one of the top activities on mobile devices, and mobile commerce in the coming years will quickly jump from a negligible number to a significant revenue stream for marketers in the U.S. and worldwide. This report reviews how all of these trends are coming together and creating new opportunities for marketers.

What is Page Speed Online?

A few weeks ago I attended (and had the honour of speaking at) Mozcon. Mozcon is without a doubt the best SEO conference I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to a lot. It rocks to be amongst so many stars! Anyhoo, just to say thanks to the Mozteam for flying me over to sunny Seattle, I brought them a new toy to play with. And the best part, it’s free for anyone to use.

Introducing the Adwords API Extension for Excel.

Oh Gosh, Richard Made a Video

My team were insistent – no light piano jazz this time. It sucks. I have no idea what’s wrong with them – elevator music is awesome. So here’s a quick tour in my best British accent. Think: “shine yer shoes, Guvnor?” (If you’ve ever heard Rand’s Brit accent attempts, you’ll know where I’m coming from with that.)

Get Yourself an Adwords API Key

Obviously that’s a pretty quick tour in the video, so it didn’t include the fiendishly simple set up process. So you know, you’ll need an Adwords API key. Adwords API keys are available to My Client Center account holders. Get one of those from here. For whatever reason, it’s tough to migrate to an MCC account from a plain old Adwords account, so take my advice and create a fresh Google account login for your Adwords API.

Learn the Queries

Learning the queries is pretty easy. Here are the most important:

getAdWordAvg()

getAdWordAvg(keyword,”[MATCHTYPE]“,”[COUNTRYCODE]“,”DEVICE”)

Example: =getAdWordAvg(A1,”EXACT”,”GB”,”WEB”)

Description: returns average search volume from the adwords API. Matchtype accepts broad, exact and phrase match. Country codes can be found in the Adwords documentation and devices can be mobile or web.

arrayGetAdWordStats()

arrayGetAdWordStats([TABLE],”[MATCHTYPE]“,”[COUNTRYCODE]“,”DEVICE”)

Example: =arrayGetAdWordStats(myKWlist,”EXACT”,”US”,”MOBILE”)

Description: array formula (auto adds {} brackets) will return data from a list of keywords in a table (average search volume and seasonal data).

arrayGetAdWordIdeas()

arrayGetAdWordIdeas([TABLE],”[MATCHTYPE]“,”[COUNTRYCODE]“,”DEVICE”,[NoOfResults])

Example: =arrayGetAdWordIdeas(Table1,”BROAD”,”US”,”WEB”,20)

Description: array formula (auto adds {} brackets) will return suggestions from a list of keywords in a table (average search volume and seasonal data).

I Want, I Want! Gimme the Download! Gimme!

Just so you know, the full installation guide is over on SEOgadget. All you have to do is download this zip fileand run setup.xls. That’s all!

After years of working with Excel, I’m still really excited by it. It’s solved a lot of problems for me in the past and I’d just like to personally thank my chief data wrangler and master datasmith of Choice, Tom Gleeson. He rocks.

I’d really love to hear your thoughts, feedback and of course how you’re using the extension to work smarter in your keyword research.

Source:http://www.seomoz.org/blog/search-volume-data-excel

Unfortunately, patent trolls are not a new phenomenon. But, lately we’ve seen a disturbing new trend: patent trolls targeting app developers. Platforms such as iOS and Android allow small software developers the ability to widely distribute their work, which – for obvious reasons – is good for both developers and consumers. Just as these developers were finding new audiences, the patent trolls decided they wanted a piece of the action and started sending cease-and-desist letters demanding license fees, and in some instances even suing. Often, these developers cannot afford the time and money it takes to fight the trolls, leaving them with a stark choice: pay up or go out of business. It should come as no surprise then to hear reports that developers are pulling their apps from the U.S. app stores.

We’ve written before about Lodsys (here and here), a troll accusing app developers of patent infringement based on in-app purchasing functionality. Lodsys continues to send out cease-and-desist letters even as litigation surrounding its patents is pending all over the country. (The Court has not yet ruled on Apple’s motion to intervene in the case Lodsys brought against iOS app developers.)

Lodsys is not the only troll with the dubious distinction of suing app developers. A company called MacroSolve sued app developers for using technology apparently as basic as distributing electronic forms. And more recently, a company called Kootol announced plans to sue 30 companies – some large ones, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as app developers like Iconfactory. (Of note, Kootol’s “patent” is currently only an application, so we won’t see any lawsuits until it matures into a full-blown patent, which should happen in short order.)

The patent system is intended to promote innovation, but it seems pretty clear to us that here it’s doing just the opposite. While we are disappointed that the proposed patent reform legislationdoes nothing to curb this problem, we will continue to monitor the situation and provide resources to as many developers as we can. To help us do this, we request that attorneys licensed to practice in the United States who are willing to and interested in advising targets of trolls join EFF’s Cooperating Attorneys’ List.

If interested, please email Rebecca Reagan at rsreagan@eff.org with your contact information or the contact information for your firm, and the states in which you are licensed to practice law.

Original source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/07/patent-trolls-drive-app-developers-u-s-market