Microsoft Acquires Skype for $8.5 BILLION!

Microsoft is buying Skype. One of the world's biggest software companies now owns the leading name in online telephony and video conferencing. It's the biggest acquisition in Microsoft's long and storied history.

So, um... what now?

Source: CNN - http://newsstream.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/10/microsoft-buys-skype-what-now/?iref=allsearch

3 Big Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is Essential for Your Business

Social media is embedded in our daily lives. It is no longer the trend, it is the web and continues to weave and wrap itself into every corner and crevice of the internet as we know it.

It is on your smart phone as a Facebook “app”.  Twitter streams compel you to click on the link, to respond to questions from strangers. YouTube viral videos videos offering  distraction from your tasks at hand entice you to click when you should be working and to view when you should be productive.

This addiction has spread and 650 million people on Facebook,  225 million on Twitter and 100 million on LinkedIn are evidence of  this compelling attraction and distraction that disrupts our daily lives. 

The reality is that this evil (humor here!) and addictive behaviour is exactly what makes social media so powerful as a marketing medium.

3 Reasons Why Social Media is Essential

It Spreads

Television can reach an audience of millions but that’s where it stops. You cannot hit retweet or Facebook share on your TV remote (not yet .. but watch this space).  Television is also mostly local or national and is not global unless you are watching the Olympics or the ‘World Cup’. Social media’s viral capacity lies in its ‘one to many’ and then the ‘many to many’ amplification of ideas and content on a worldwide scale. The low friction of sharing (how easy is it to hit a ‘like’ button or a retweet icon) with social media provides the power to make ideas spread that dictators of the past and present would admire.

It Lasts

I don’t know if you realize that Google is now indexing and archiving your tweets. The tweets may be fleeting but Google’s 1 million servers are quietly buzzing and working away in dark rooms in distant corners of the earth digitally filing away your superficial tweets along with those ones with great links to YouTube videos and great blog posts that make a difference in people’s lives. The blog posts you write are saved, maybe not for eternity but certainly for decades to come. Think of your content as a digital asset that you should be continually investing in as you build up your online properties net worth.

It Helps You Get Found

Ranking on the first page of a search engine is the holy grail for businesses (it is where 90% of all clicks to websites occur). Google along with Bing is now placing a higher priority on all things social ( you may or may not have noticed that YouTube videos and Blogs are often appearing high up in search along with other social networking channels). The search giants have realized over the last 12 months that people’s ranking of content on websites and blogs with Facebook likes, Twitter retweets and Google +1′s that social recommendations are valuable as a ranking for search. An active and persistent presence on social media channels increases significantly your chances of being ‘found’ online and we all know how important that is on a world that is continuously connected, searching and clicking.

Do you ‘get’ social media yet? Does your boss ‘get it’?

Social media is way beyond fluffy, fun and superficial… it is now serious business!

Source: Jeff Bullas

Four Tips for Raising Your Google Position

To increase your visibility and authority on the web, you need some knowledge of Google rankings. 

Learning how Google’s ranking system works can help you make important changes that can move your website up the ranking ladder.

Because Google is the most popular Internet search engine on the internet, its rankings are important to website owners, content developers, and Internet marketers. The final score is assigned using an algorithm, or mathematical calculation. Several factors are included in the analysis, such as number of inbound links, quality of inbound links and number of outbound links.

Here are four steps to take that can help lift your score and, as a result, raise your Google ranking.

1. Start link building. Part of your site's rank is based on how many links on external pages point back to your site. The more pages referring web users to your site, the better your chances of getting a higher ranking. Two of the easiest ways to generate links to your site include reciprocal links and guest posts. With reciprocal links, you place another company's link somewhere on your site in exchange for getting your own link on their site. Additionally, if you write content for a blog as a guest author, you can usually add a link back to your site in the author bio at the end of the post.

2. Use keywords, but don't overuse them. Keyword density is a term that refers to the ratio of a keyword or keyword phrase to the rest of the text on your web page. Effective use of keywords or keyword phrases can improve your rank. Beware of "keyword stuffing." Overusing keywords can hurt your ranking. It’s always best to write naturally.

3. Remember to add title tags. A title tag is made up of the words between the <TITLE> tags of your site's HTML header. Instead of using the default "New Page" that shows up on many page editors, change it to a title for the page that includes a relevant keyword or phrase.

4. Use keyword-rich anchor text. Anchor text is the text highlighted for readers to indicate a hyperlink. When it comes to anchor text, try to use keywords as often as possible. Creating a hyperlink from words like "click here" won’t add any value to the link or your website.

Source: Lesley Spencer Pyle