I love local search! And believe it or not (if you don’t now hopefully you will after looking at this info graphic 
local search has been around for quite some time. I love mobile search! Of course now, we have the power of local in the palm of our hands with all the advances in mobile marketing. Local has come a long way baby!
Dream Systems Media has been providing local search engine marketing for small town business owners for almost a decade and we wanted to share some of that history here. We hope everyone enjoys using and viewing it as much as we enjoyed creating it.
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Local Marketing local, Local Marketing, local search engine marketing, local search engine optimization, local seo
Facebook’s new timeline layout changes the ad space as follows:
Old Facebook Profile Ads
Old Facebook Profile Layout
New Slimmer Facebook Profile Ads
New Timeline Layout
Compare the Same Facebook Ad Side by Side
239 x 117
128 x 168
Differences in Facebook Ads
While the ad sizes are not exact, the widths are fairly accurate. The new ad is slimmer, at about 128 pixels. The image sizes remain the same at 110 x 80 pixels. The background color has changed from white to the light blue. The number of ads on a traditional page range from 1 to 6. The number of ads on the new facebook timeline layout is 2 or 3 depending on your screen size. Yes, the ads display in conjunction with your screen size, pretty high tech programing there. One of the biggest differences between the two sets is that the new layout keeps the ads on page as you scroll down the page. The old set up will actually scroll the ads off the screen. Very subtle differences, but I am sure someone somewhere at Facebook is monitoring revenues based on the layouts. Curious internet marketers would like to know what that difference is. Facebook marketers want to know how this could effect their ads.
General Facebook, facebook ads, facebook advertising, new on facebook, pest control guy, Social Media
It has been intriguing to see the comments and analysis of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) over the past few weeks. For the most part, this legislation has been viewed as a speech squelching, entrepreneur killing, economy halting piece of legislation. After personally reading SOPA (yes, all 78 pages), I find some merit to these arguments and it appears that too much power would be put into the hands of the government and allow them to compel and force online businesses to shut down portions (or all) of their websites without proper Constitutional due process. 
SOPA reminds me of a scene from the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest movie, when Jack Sparrow and Will Turner are discussing plans to retrieve the mysterious key from Davy Jones. (NOTE: If SOPA had passed last week, I would have had to find a more witty way to prove my point here for fear of copyright infringement):
SOPA sopa, stop online piracy act
Caution: Follow Me At Your Own Risk
Recently, an episode of “Staffers Gone Wild” played out on the internet with the unbelievable tweets of government staff members being broadcast for all to see. Isn’t it comforting to know that your hard earned tax dollars are being spent to fund the watching of Nirvana videos or support drinking while on the job? I’m not here to talk about the politics of this behavior, as I will leave that up to the political pundits to comment on.
What I do want to talk about are some potential legal ramifications that exist in businesses with easy access to the thousands of open eyes and ears reading your posts and tweets. We all know that social media marketing, imaging, and messaging are extremely important in shaping your brand. It takes a lot of time and money to get others to see you as you want them to. However, with one simple tweet your whole plan and message can be compromised, leaving you open to liabilities and harming your brand. Additionally, there are a host of legal pitfalls awaiting you.
Legal Social Media, social media policies
I got asked a lot of great questions at Pubcon after my Competitive Intelligence session a while back, so I wanted to take some time and answer a lot of those questions here. If anyone else had questions that were not answered, or I just forgot (in my defense there were A LOT of questions) feel free to fire them away in the comments. Hopefully this covers everyone that came up to me and asked a question (or that I promised something to).
A lot of times when online marketers think about doing competitive analysis we just look at the SEO and PPC side of things. But if you really consider yourself to be an “online marketer,” you need to look beyond just the two obvious channels. You should also try to figure out what your competitors are doing for testing, retargeting, and any other advertising networks they might be using.
Competitive Intelligence back links, competitive intelligence, competitive research, spyfu
Yes, this is a post targeted directly at some of my closest friends who are still tied down by the chains of Corporate America. I probably don’t speak to them often enough; it’s not because I don’t like them, it’s simply because each time we meet and begin talking, the conversation turns negative nine times out of ten.
Why is this you might ask?
I personally don’t think I’m a negative guy. In fact, when I worked in “Corporate America” I was given the “Best Attitude” Award…ha ha!
The reason things tend to turn negative, in my opinion (IMO), is because my friends know that what I’m doing as a self-employed entrepreneur is EXACTLY what they want to be doing…but they’re afraid to take the leap from that “security”.
SECURITY MY EYE!
Business, Entrepreneur
Saw an article on Social Media stats the other day on AdAge by Sarah Evans (awesome list of stats she compiled) and of course, me being who I am, I wanted to visualize the data. So enjoy! I used several of these statistics in my recent SMX Social Media Scottsdale presentation on SoLoMo – Checking into the real world.
Social Media Stats
Dream Systems Media Info-graphics Program
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Social Media Social Media, social media statistics
A lesson in Repurposing Content -
I heard an English teacher once say that “Every modern love story is a copy of Shakespeare.” She used Westside Story as an extreme example, stolen from Romeo and Juliet. She went on to challenge us to find a theme that Shakespeare did not cover. But there are those who argue that Shakespeare himself stole content. Who did Shakespeare steal stories from? Well, no one really knows at this point. But if he did borrow some ideas, does that constitute stealing? He took stories and themes and reworked them so eloquently that they became his own. Taking a peak at what people have done in the past and building upon their thoughts and ideas can be a healthy exercise. Adding to the conversation is a good thing. Further, those that we can identify with and build better thoughts with may even thank us. …or not. Matt Cutts may just consider me more of a pest than a pest control guy. I concede. But thanks Matt Cutts for the original Pac-Man Pie Chart idea.
General Google, Google Webmaster Tools, matt cutts, pest control, Pubcon, Romeo and Juliet, Search engine optimization, Shakespeare
Privacy Law Developments –
Las Vegas PubCon 2011 - My powerpoint aims to provide a synopsis on some of the most recent and relevant privacy law developments affecting
Internet business and marketing — from security breach notification statute amendments to the SEC’s Guidance on cyber security and disclosure.
Pubcon Pubcon, Pubcon Vegas, pubcon vegas 2011
Here is my presentation from Pubcon Vegas 2011 on Competitive Intelligence. This was a great panel and I am hoping everybody learned a ton! Enjoy!
Pubcon Vegas 2011 Competitive Intelligence session write-ups:
Pubcon Pubcon, Pubcon Vegas, pubcon vegas 2011
History of Local Search
