North Carolina News Reporters Use Twitter!

Here’s an interesting point in history for any of you Internet Marketing and Social Marketing fans in the Charlotte, North Carolina region.

One of the local television channels has encouraged their reporters to start using Twitter!  You can now follow each of these anchors and reporters from WCNC..

1. Bobby Sisk (anchor)
2. Michelle Boudin (reporter)
3. Melissa Martin (reporter)
4. Anjanette Flowers (reporter/anchor)
5. Mark Boone (reporter)

However, it looks as if Kayla Gagnet Castille is the true force behind this initiative.  It seems as if she uses Twitter at WCNC more than anyone else.

You can see their pictures, learn more about them, and see their latest comments here on the official WCNC website.  They wrote a page here about the Democratic primaries in North Carolina yesterday and how they will use Twitter during them.

Kudos to WCNC and to whoever had this idea.  Nice try to get these talented individuals into “new media” and work the social space online.

Click here for how to use Twitter.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Hotel Accommodations for Hippo Training

The last couple classes we held, there were quite a few students coming from Asheville, Raleigh, and even Atlanta!

Unfortunately, until now I did not have any recommendations for where they could stay.  In fact, when they stayed at the places closest to the class itself, the reports back were not that great.

So last week I was able to find a nice place that is only a few minutes from the class.  I’m sure there are cheaper places one could stay in this region, but this place is nice.  It has quiet, spacious rooms, good breakfast, a nice pool, whirlpool, and wireless Internet throughout.

The rate is $99 per night.

More info available on this page of our Charlotte Training site.

Here is their official site with more details.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Blogging Class Agenda Now Available

Over the past couple months, we’ve been able to pull off our first classes on Search Engine Optimization and Google AdWords.

But in just about one week, we’ll be holding our first ever blogging class.  I’m really excited about this one because I think almost every business could benefit by creating a blog.

I’ve posted regularly to my own blog on Internet Marketing since October 2006.  In fact, I owned another blog for about a year before that.  Yet, I think most business owners, marketing agencies, and even web developers think that a blog is some mystical thing that takes a lot of work to create and maintain.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  Creating a quality WordPress blog is easy.  Posting to it is easier than writing an email.  Most people email every day.  Why can’t they own and operate a blog?

Because they don’t know how!

Today I wrote out the benefits and agenda for our blogging class next week.  Check it out and feel free to tell others.

Popularity: 8% [?]

The Charlotte SEO Meetup is Going Strong!

The Charlotte SEO Meetup had another nice meeting last night.  This group has grown to over 90 members already and we are having a great time getting to know each other.

For several months the group met monthly and only about 5–10 people actually got together.  But last month we had over 20 that met at Panera Bread.

Last night we had 21 attend and the program was a little more structured.  Specifically, Keith opened with some basic comments and general housekeeping.  Then, I discussed the topic “LINKING – 10 Ideas every site owner can use”

I used a really cool PowerPoint program that I put together earlier in the day which had some unique images to express some basic concepts that I went into in more depth verbally.

I actually handled the PowerPoint in about 30 minutes or less.  We then opened it up for discussion.  Some new ideas came out and we even put one member’s site up and discussed how he specifically could get links.

We then broke and let everyone chat.  Some left immediately, but others stayed for an extra hour or more.  It was a good time.  There were some very positive comments left on the meetup page.  Click here and you can see the comments of others on the right side column.

Next meeting is on Thursday, June 5, 2008 and we’ll be doing site reviews.

Anyone can join the Charlotte SEO meetup for free.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Google’s World Domination continues

Just when you thought Google could not get any bigger or badder, new statistics get released from Hitwise.

The latest search share stats show…

Google – 67.3%
Yahoo – 20.3%
Microsoft – 6.7%
Everyone else – 5.7%

Here’s the graph…

It’s really amazing.  How high are these numbers going to go for Google?  Their branding and market recognition for being the place to go for search seems almost unstoppable.

If you are thinking of advertising online, whey think of anything else?

Start with Google.  Google AdWords in particular, just seems like the first place to go if you want to advertise.

Amazing.  It wasn’t like this just a year or two ago.

Popularity: 29% [?]

SphinnCon in North Carolina - What to expect

Today it was announced that there will be a search engine conference held in North Carolina.  Here are the basic details…

Event:      SphinnCon North Carolina 2008
Date:         May 2 from 10 AM to 10 PM. 

Location:  Greensboro, NC (Between Raleigh and Charlotte)
Facility:    Kress Terrace (212 South Elm Street)

Host:      Third Door Media (creators of Search Engine Land and Sphinn)
Cost:         $150 

Audience: Only 150 can attend.

What to expect: 

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 38% [?]

Capitalization matters in Google SERPs!

It’s amazing how fast things change when it comes to search engines.

Last week, a student asked me in class if capitalization makes a difference in search engines.  He clarified by asking:  “If you type a phrase into Google, will you get different results if you capitalize or not?”

I made a bold, strong statement that Google shows the same results if you use lowercase or capitals.  No need to worry about that when doing Keyword Research!

Uh…  Well…  Until now, that is.

I just got a tip (from a twitterer) this morning that Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) are showing up differently for capitalized and lowercase keyword phrases.

For example, a search on Corey Creed brings…

But a search on corey creed (lowercase) brings…
(Notice the third indented result.  It’s different.)

Upon doing a little research on this, it seems as if it was originally discussed at a recent Webmaster World Forum posting about a month ago.  However, at that time it was only happening outside the USA.

It now seems to be happening now.

This raises very interesting questions…

1. Why would Google do this?  Is it a new feature or bug?
2. Are they noticing people want something different when capitalizing?
3. Do we need to start including both types of phrases when doing keyword research?

Popularity: 45% [?]

Our Google AdWords Training Class

The Google AdWords training class went well this week.  I was very pleased that the students seemed to not only enjoy the class but learn quite a few new tips and suggestions that would help them.

I personally worked very hard on the class materials, format, and agenda to make sure it would assist a newcomer and/or someone who already had a Google AdWords account.

You can’t really tell from the picture, but the students came from very different backgrounds and levels of understanding…

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 47% [?]

Google AdWords History Lesson

In getting ready to teach my next Google AdWords class, I wrote up a handout showing the brief history of Google AdWords.

I thought it would make a great blog post too.  Let me know what you think…

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 53% [?]

Be Careful if your Business Handles Credit Card info

For any business that accepts payment with credit cards, you need to think about PCI compliance. 

PCI stands for “Payment Card Industry”.  What are PCI standards?

PCI standards are not laws, but regulations imposed by payment card companies.  In order to accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express, you have to fulfill certain contractual obligations to ensure the safety of customer data.

For small businesses such as e commerce businesses, it especially comes into play if you accept phone orders.  After all, the e-commerce orders through your website probably are secure.  But what if someone calls you on the phone?  Do you just write credit card info on a piece of paper before processing it?  What do you do with that paper?  What should you do?

If you are local to the Charlotte area, you may want to consider attending a free seminar from JStengel Consulting.  They have a free information seminar coming up at the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce on April 1^st.  (No, it’s not an April Fools joke.)

We are not affiliated with JStengel in any way.  We met them at the Lake Norman Expo the other week for the first time.  Yet, three from our office will be attending their meeting.

This is important to us.  If you handle credit cards, it should be to you also.

Here’s a pdf whitepaper with more info on the meeting.

Popularity: 53% [?]