Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the best way to increase the online visibility of a Company or Business on Search Engines. It makes extensive use of popular search engines like Yahoo and Google for product marketing and traffic building. Social Media on the other hand includes latest technology that is featured through the internet for communicating with a massive world-wide population. By using Social media for SEO, you can easily reach-out to millions of potential customers without having to wait for them to come to you. The trick is to place your business/brand name in the public eye by combining appropriate SEO techniques with Social Media Marketing to receive a desired response from the audience.

Social Media for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Social Networking websites have gained immense popularity in the past few years. Millions of internet users access websites like Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, Twitter etc, on a daily basis. By creating a business profile page on such networking websites you can instantly expose your brand name to global audience. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that Yahoo & Google search engines obtain data feeds through such networking websites. By utilizing the profile page on social networking websites for posting promotional blog contents, articles and videos you can easily enhance your business web-page ranking on the internet. This space can further be used as a platform to communicate & obtain feedback from your valuable customers, thereby building a strong foundation for your future business prospects.

One can also use essential keywords within the content that is posted on various social networking websites for increasing the online visibility of their business on the internet. Blogs, Articles and Web-posts carrying crucial keywords are immediately noticed & picked up by a number of search engines which is automatically displayed on the result page. It is equally effective to post website-links, banner-ads, images and videos on your business profile page. Facebook and Twitter can be used favorably to increase the number of Fans & Followers. A high number of fan-following would not only improve the credibility of your business but also help further in establishing a favorable brand-name.

Use Influential People from the world Social Media to represent your products & services. Active users with a large network can do wonders for an enterprise by sharing a positive review/feedback about their products & services. Such personalities play an important role in presenting your brand to the potential customers in the best possible way.

Every content-matter that is published on a Social Networking website possesses a shelf-life. This means that a particular post or column that is published on these web-pages loses its impact as time passes by. Recent research proved that a Facebook announcement gets almost as much as 50% of its ‘Likes’ and comments within its first hour, after which the responses seem to elevate but subsides after a day . This is precisely the reason why content-marketing is believed to be one of the most crucial aspects of SEO.

I used TypePad a while back and needed directions for adding a flash banner.  This was the reply I received from the tech support that I thought may be helpful to folks.  I apologize in advance if this info is too dated:

How to Install Flash Banners in TypePad

You must have a TypePad Pro account and be using advanced templates in order to add a Flash Banner.

Note: when altering your existing template code, it is a very good idea to copy your code and paste it into a text document in case you make a mistake and need to start from scratch.

Step One: Upload your Flash file to your TypePad account

1. login at www.typepad.com.
2. Upload your Flash banner file using the File Manager. This is different than inserting an image into a post.
3. Click on the name of the fie in the list (not the link icon) to open it in another window or tab. Copy the URL for the file so that you can insert it into your template in the next step.
4. Click the Weblogs tab in TypePad and go to the blog you wish to add the banner to.
5. If you are already using an advanced template, click the Design tab. If you are using a Basic template you’ll need to convert your template to advanced.

Step Two: Creating A Template Module for Your Banner

1. Near the bottom of the page, locate and click Create New Template Module.
2. Give your new template a name of flash-banner by typing it in the Template Name field.
3. Paste the following code into the Template Body field:
   <object classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0″ width=”900” height=”130“>
   <param name=”movie” value=”http://www.yourURLcom/sample.swf” />
   <param name=”quality” value=”high” />
   <embed src=”http://www.yourURLcom/sample.swf” quality=”high” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”900” height=”130“>
   </embed>
   </object>
4. Replace the links provided in the example code with the link to your flash file. Make sure to edit the height and width tags also, to match the size of your flash banner. The items that need to be chaged are bolded in the example above.
5. Click Save at the bottom of the page.

Step Three: Including Your New flash-banner Module into Your Templates

1. Return to the Design tab for your blog.
2. Click on your Main Index Template. Replace <$MTWeblogIncludeModule module=”banner”$> with <$MTInclude module=”flash-banner”$>
3. Click Save.
4. Return to the Design tab and click on your Archive Index Template.
5. Replace <$MTWeblogIncludeModule module=”banner”$> with <$MTInclude module=”flash-banner”$> and click Save.
6. Return to the Design tab and for each of the following templates Category Archives, DataBased Archives, and Individual Archives replace <$MTWeblogIncludeModule module=”banner”$> with <$MTInclude module=”flash-banner”$> Click Save for each one.
7. You’re done! Click Save and Republish your site (be sure that Publish all Files is selected in the popup window).
8. View your blog in a new tab or window. If you don’t see the menu at the top, hold the shift key down the first time you reload the page.

This weekend I finally decided to attend a tile installation class at my local Home Depot here in Vacaville, CA.  The instructor was a “good ‘ole boy” from Kentucky, and let us eager learners know that it would last the better part of two hours.  So of course there I was eagerly filling page after page with notes to cover all aspects of laying tile.  At times he would ramble on and on about how money driven Californians are (of course true), and how he missed slappin’ hogs on the farm (as if we gave a crap).  A good guy, but certainly long winded.  So I would on occasion let my mind drift away, and as I did so, I became acutely aware of the intercoms and announcements going on in the store.  All of a sudden I thought I was losing my mind as I could distinctly hear duck noises coming from high above in the rafters.  Since I’m not a total idiot I dismissed them instead of looking for their location.  They stopped and I put them out of my mind  completely.  Minutes later they were back…unmistakable duck sounds.  At that point I thought I would ask the guy next to me if he heard them too.  Well as most things go, the sounds then stopped and he looked at me as if he was waiting for me to bust out laughing.  I told him never mind and we both turned away.  At least five more times during the class I would hear these sounds, and each time I would turn to him for a response.  Each time in turn he would grow more uncomfortable and try to ignore me.  After the two agonizing hours were up, the instructor concluded and asked the class for questions, I had none to speak of since after an hour in I had stopped paying attention anyways as I feared I was suffering from some form of early dementia.

Well figuring I had already conceded to the fact that I was hearing repeated duck sounds, and rationalizing it down to some form of trance that makes you purchase more stuff for your home, I decided I would ask customer service if I was alone in hearing this.  At first the two young people just gave me a wide eyed smile and I thought to myself….”dude just get the hell out of here and go have a beer.”  But to my amazement, they instead confirmed these noises to not only be true, but to being “piped in through the speakers by management.”  Dumbfounded I questioned the reasoning and they stated, “we have a real problem with pigeons flying in and management thinks that playing the duck sounds will drive the pigeons out of the store.”  All I could think is that you have to be freakin kidding me.  Since when do ducks attack pigeons or even intimidate them so that they disperse.  I could see maybe falcon sounds or even shotgun blasts, but freakin ducks?  Well at least I realized I wasn’t completely nuts although I spent the better part of 20 minutes trying to find the guy that sat next to me in class so I could deliver the proper “I told you so.”  Has anyone ever heard of this actually working?

If you’re like me, you often times find yourself at Walgreen’s grabbing a few quick items because you didn’t want to spend the time running into a large grocery store.  Also like me, you figure you’ll grab a quick 6-pack of brew only to be reminded once again that Walgreen’s has some evil no brewsky policy.  Well hallelujah my friend, a change is at hand at last.   Right under our noses Walgreen’s added stacks of beer to their shelves for our shopping pleasure.  The only catch is that it’s their own personal brand called “Big Flats 1901” which is being sold at the low price of 50 cents a can (a 6-pack will then be $3.00).  These prices make me skeptical of its taste, but that’s definitely not going to prevent me from trying it.

According to the Chicago Tribune,  4,600 of the chain’s 7,655 U.S. locations have been selling the new line of beer for about a month….who knew.  Also, next month the chain is expanding it’s wine industry with the introduction of Colby Red out of Napa.  This brand will go along with the other wine brands (Southern Point & David Stone) that are already on shelves.

Chicago Tribune

Everyone’s mind no doubt is as unique to that person as a fingerprint.  Sometimes however, even though we haven’t completely lost it yet, we often feel as though parts of our minds are on permanent vacation.

Even today at lunch, I though about posting on the study of short term memory, but hours later I couldn’t remember this very topic.  And I know we’ve all had these moments.  Some are even more peculiar such as suddenly forgetting your ATM Pen or access code at work.  Possible forgetting to bring lunch although you’ve routinely brought it ever single day for years.  These functions I would presume, would fall into the category of learned mechanical response instead of being locked into our extended memories.  I would liken them to putting your pants on in the morning.  They are things you just “do” and never put much thought into. Therefore suddenly just forgetting them can usually be remembered by just looking at an ATM keypad and following the mechanical behavior you remember instead of necessarily remembering  the numbers themselves.

I’ve also found that people remember things most often when they use the least amount of memory as possible.  Generally this would involve simply reminding yourself repeatedly until the time comes to utilize a given memory.

Well apparently Schlitz no longer has to be just your “Daddy’s” beer of old. Now you can make your own memories of smackin’ around the old lady after downing a few pints of Milwaukee’s finest.

Yes my friends, Schlitz is indeed on the comeback trail. According to the Associate Press:

“Schlitz’ owner, Pabst Brewing Co., is recreating the old formula, using notes and interviews with old brew masters to concoct the pilsner again. The maker of another nostalgic favorite, Pabst Blue Ribbon, it hopes baby boomers will reach for the drink of their youth, otherwise known as ”The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous.” They also want to create a following among younger drinkers who want to know what grandma and grandpa drank.”

Few of us ever knew that Schlitz was once America’s number 2 brewery back in the mid to late 70’s. That is of course until they attempted to cut costs in the brewing process by using a high-temperature fermentation, which not only produced a nasty version of the original, but also began to clump up when subjected to an extended shelf life.

Well that was then, and this is the time of the Schlitz rebirth. It’s already selling out in areas of Milwaukee and the demand is ever increasing. So look for this classic to make its return to your liquor store soon.

Schlitz Locator