Social Advertising Best Practices (mashable article)

Hello everyone, 

Here is a very interesting article by Todd Wasserman, Mashable's business editor, who points to 4 'best practices' in social advertising that you can apply to achieve a successful result in your social marketing attempts.

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the original article.

New Facebook Graph Search update

Hello everybody,

Today we are going to talk about the new update that Facebook has made to its Graph Search feature, by allowing/enabling users to be able to search for comments (also based on time period or location), posts, status updates, tpics of interest and more!

Mashable.com's Kurt Wagner has written an article that describes this new update and how it can be implemented to offer you a more complete 'real-time conversations' platform, which is something that Facebook is focusing on as part of their competition with Twitter.

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the original article.

Google: 5 steps to being at the top!

You want to take your product to another level, and be the king on SE's?

Yes, you do, don't deny it :)

One of the most important things you need to have is dominance over the competition, of course, in many levels -- product quality, marketing, pricing, but also on the Search Engines... as they offer the platform for your product promotion and success online... In other words, you need to command the SE's on your niche.

With Google being in the forefront of SE's, Jay Taylor from SearchEngineWatch proposes 5 steps that will allow you to be on the top of your niche on Google!

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the original article...

HootSuite: Social Media Account Management tool

Hello everybody,

I wanted to share this article by Marissa Cetin (Mashable.com) regarding the use of tools for managing your social media accounts. These management tools are essential for social media users, as they allow them to keep track and manage their accounts in one place and with ease.

The author offers a in-depth guide to a particular tool that is a top notch solution for "streamline sharing for work and play" -- this tool is the quite popular HootSuite. HootSuite allows users to "conserve precious tab space by connecting their Twitter, Facebook, Google+ (pages only), LinkedIn, Foursquare, WordPress and Mixi accounts under the HootSuite umbrella, and take advantage of the convenient scheduling feature."

If you are a social media fan dont miss out on this article and tool as it will most definitely help you keep everything social in order! :)

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the original article.

Facebook Autoplay Videos

Facebook is slowly but surely moving towards the release of its autoplay video feature which many are anxiously waiting for as it will offer a profitable advertisement platform both for those interested in further promoting their brand/products.

As explained by Chistopher Heine in his article in AdWeek, Facebook is to allow some selected mobile users to test this new feature in their news feeds as a start and testing point towards the actual 'big picture' of marketing messages. 

The test feature is said to allow specifically for the "Uploaded videos for those kinds of parties [to] autoplay automatically without the poster clicking a button—or having the ability to choose against autoplay. In other words, the news feed experience should closely resemble Instagram video." Furthermore, the types of videos that will be allowed to autoplay are those that have been produced via Instagram, Social Cam and Cinemagram. Other types of vides such as Youtube, Vimeo, etc., will not have the autoplay capability.

No specific date has been announced for the web-based version of this feature.

The actual news announcement by Facebook can be read here, which also contains some links for additional resources as well as some FAQ's.

Click on the 'continue reading' link in order to read the original AdWeek article.

404 pages and SEO

Hello everyone!

One of the common questions I am asked is 'what happens when a page (or pages) in my site renders 404's?'.

That is a very good question, and the fact is that there are many aspects to consider regarding 404's for the site navigation, visitor experience, search engines, SEO in general, etc.

Let's take a look at an article written by Brad Miller from SearchEngineWatch that takes a close look and explain the good and bad of 404's from different aspects.

Click on the 'continue reading' link to read the original article

Facebook Video Ads?

Facebook is working on adding a video ads option for its users, however they still have not put the project in motion as they are concerned about the user friendliness and how they can be displayed in a non obtrusive manner as they do not wish to 'annoy' their members.

Specifically, this ad service will allow for members to create 15 second clips that will be viewable via the web as well as smartphones. However, the 'glitch' is that Facebook needs to make this service as attractive and profitable as possible for both ends, they need to find the right balance in order to make it a '$2 million per day' rendering project. The team at Facebook is considering all options so as to not make the ads 'distracting and slow' and as a result lose users interest... 'the videos will appear prominently on members' homepage news feeds, the people familiar said'.

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the original article and let us know your thoughts on this latest Facebook venture... 

Video Marketing tips for Brand Marketers

In his article (SearchEngineWatch.com), Greg Jarboe provides 7 tips, or best practices, based on a recent study made by Pixability that help brand marketers towards video and digital marketing success. 

As stated in the article, "Pixability anticipates that by 2015, they will likely invest in the production, marketing, and distribution of more than 1 million new YouTube videos. The ones who don't? They end up back in the legacy marketing world wondering why their customers are somewhere else, such as a competitor's YouTube channel."

So, do you want to enhance your brand by exploring the possibilities in video marketing and drive your brand to success?

Take a look at the original article by clicking on the 'continue reading' link below, and see how these best practices can help you!

Feel free to post your comments! 

New Google Display Planner by AdWords

A new announcement has been made by Google AdWords -- the launch of the Google Display Planner "a new unified research and planning tool, bringing you targeting ideas and estimates that can help you build better display campaigns"! 

This new tool is based on three existing tools in Google AdWords, the Contextual Targeting Tool, Placement Tool, and Google Ad Planner. This new tool makes it easier for advertisers to find everything in one place. As explained in the announcement, "Display Planner is built into AdWords, so with one click you can add all the keywords, placements, or other targeting ideas you choose directly into your campaigns. Display Planner also makes them easy to download and share with your team members".

Both the Contextual Targeting and Placement Tools will expire in the upcoming days, and the Google Ad Planner will be made obsolete in early September. It is recommended that those advertisers using the Google Ad Planner should backup their data in the next few weeks.

For more detailed information on the Display Planner and how you can start using it, please click on the 'continue reading' link below and don't forget to leave us your feedback!

Google Link Scheme (Webmaster Tools)

In their Webmasters Tools website, Google has presented the Link Scheme guide which include scenarios that can have a negative influence on your search results.

Jennifer Slegg of SearchEngineWatch has written an article based on teh above mentioned guide that details the main schemes presented in the Google Webmasters Tools 'Link Scheme' guide , such as links, over-optimized anchored texts, advertorials, etc. and their effect on search results.

Take a look at the original article by clicking on the 'continue reading' link below and let us know your thoughts on the comment section...

Pinterest Personalized Pins

Pinterest announced on Friday that it is rolling out new features/improvements to their service.

• Edit Button to take control of what you get to see, or not (Follow/Unfollow Boards) as well as how you see it displayed in your feed.
• You can also select to get personalized pins and boards based on websites you go to that have the Pin It button (detailed info at Help Center or updated privacy policy).

Set to be available in "the next few weeks", these proposed changes could create some privacy concerns; although there has been confirmation that Pinterest will update its privacy policies. 

Take a look at the original post by Pinterest, by clicking on the 'continue reading' link below and share your thoughts on the new features and how they will affect user experience as well as privacy concerns.

Tips for Improving Your LinkedIn Marketing (article)

In a very interesting article, Steve Rayson discusses 9 ways to improve your LinkedIn B2B marketing attempts.

As he explains, in a research study made by Hubspot results showed that "more companies had acquired a customer through LinkedIn than any other social media channel. There are now over 225m registered LinkedIn members, including 77m in the US and 50m in Europe." This provides an understanding of the importance of LinkedIn in B2B marketing and the opportunities that exist in its strategic usage.

Take a look at the original article by clicking on the "continue reading" link below:

Blog Tips: Increasing Blog Conversions

Blogs are all about the reader, and as such you need to invest in making their experience in your site the best possible one.

Author Brian Casel (Mashable) does a very good job presenting various web page design related steps that you can take, which can play an important role in attracting more readers to your blog and making the stay! 

As you know, content quality and optimization is of major importance to a visitor's site experience, and as such these few design implementations can enhance and affect a reader's overall interaction with your site as well as affect "social shares, newsletter subscribers and even sales (if that's your goal)".

Take a look at the original article by clicking on the 'continue reading' link below

SEO and Content - the unbreakable bond

Based on the latest changes that Google has made to their algorithm (see Panda and Penguin updates) which has definitely influenced the workings of marketers and how they implement their strategies, author Nathan Safran has taken a look in his article "SEO & Content: The Time is Now for Collaboration! [Data]" at the correlation between SEO and content and how closely they are linked.

A study made showed that there is a strong correlation, and that SEO and content teams need to increase this collaboration further to increase results.

Despite the increased focus on content in today's online landscape, search marketers don't think the right place for content to live is under the umbrella of SEO. They do, however, overwhelmingly want to collaborate more closely with content than they currently do, in order to give their content the best possible visibility in the search results.
As search marketers, we can infer that the overwhelming desire to work more closely with content teams implies that they strongly believe doing so will only help their natural search visibility.

Take a look at the original article by clicking on the 'continue reading' link:

Search Engine Ranking Factors by Moz for 2013

Matt Peters wrote a post with an overview of the results and key factors that played a role in the 2013 study by Moz. The actual data will be presented sometime during the summer.

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the detailed overview of the study: 

Online and Offline marketing sales

One of the most beneficial tactics to search engine marketing is being able to make online and offline marketing attempts effectively come together and work for your business.

Joseph Kerschbaum (SearchEngineWatch) has proposed in his article "5 Tactics to Bridge the Online and Offline Sales Funnel", a series of techniques that can be used to effectively help businesses increase their online ROI while at the same time improving their offline results.

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the original article.

SEO leading indicators and progress.

In her article for Search Engine Watch, Purna Virji successfully presents the importance of  leading indicators when presenting the progress of a campaign to clients or management.
As she explains:

Economists regularly use leading indicators — the measurable economic factors that change before the economy as a whole changes — in order to analyze and predict future performance. Lagging indicators, on the other hand, are factors that change after the economy as a whole does.

[...] More valuably, these quick reports will build the client’s understanding of the different KPIs we SEO professionals monitor, and will be great for assuaging impatient clients and sparking a very productive dialogue each month.

The top 5 SEO indicators proposed/covered are:

• SEO Visibility (with Competitive Intelligence) 
• Links Acquired 
• Domain Authority 
• Search Traffic 
• Core Rankings

Click on the 'continue reading' link in order to see what these leading indicators are and how you can benefit from using them.

Google AdWords and Google Analytics integration made easy!

If you have been having issues integrating your Google AdWords account with your Google Analytics account, then you are in for a treat! Google has optimized its support for this, and is now offering a new and improved way of linking your accounts.

The benefit of being able to linking these 2 products and integrating the data received is that users can have more detailed and essential information in order to analyze the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and of course, Return On Investment.

This linking process will be available on all accounts in the upcoming weeks


To read the original post, please click on the 'continue reading' link:

Dynamic Remarketing by Google

Great news for those who are interested in expanding their marketing attempts via dynamic remarketing, Google has announced the availability of its new Dynamic Remarketing program to all clients with a Google Merchant Center account!

What does remarketing do exactly? Via remarketing, you can display relevant ads to a specific sector of your audience. Basically, you can create automatic, customized ads that 'link' to your shoppers past views or purchases in your site and suggest other products they might be interested in.

Is it successful? Google states that "our clients have seen clickthrough rates which were as much as a 450% higher from dynamic remarketing campaigns vs. campaigns that did not use dynamic creative for remarketing."

Want to learn more? Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the announcement

Bing announces Bing Boards

Bing has announced the launch of its newest project, Bing Boards.

What exactly are Bing Boards and what are they useful for?

As explained in the announcement:

Bing Boards are visual collections of images, videos and links that tell a story from a unique point of view. They are created by people who are passionate about the topics they blog, write or talk about – not companies or algorithms. Bing Boards are designed to be complementary to web search results, appearing in the middle column of Bing, and are aimed to help people to discover new, visually rich content.

Click on the 'Continue reading' link below to read the announcement

Facebook's Instagram announces Video Instagram for iOS and Android

So a few posts back, I informed you that Facebook is getting ready to announce  new product. There where many speculations as to what that product might be. Well, its a secret no more... Facebook has announced that Instagram will now be offering Instagram video!

Now users can record 15 second mobile videos and edit them accordingly via available features.

Basically, what this new feature offers includes the recording of 15 seconds of video, editing, filters (13), anti-shake functionality, cover frames and of course sharing (Facebook and Instagram web file)

As explained by Kevin Systrom (Co-founder, Instagram) in his post on Instagram's blog:

When you go to take a photo on Instagram, you’ll now see a movie camera icon. Tap it to enter video mode, where you can take up to fifteen seconds of video through the Instagram camera.
You’ll also find that we’ve added thirteen filters built specifically for video so you can keep sharing beautiful content on Instagram. When you post a video, you’ll also be able to select your favorite scene from what you’ve recorded as your cover image so your videos are beautiful even when they’re not playing.

So what does this mean for your content? Nothing’s different from photos. We’re still committed to making sure you have control over all of your content. Only the people who you let see your photos will be able to see your videos. And as with photos, you own your videos. You can learn more about Video on Instagram—including our new Cinema feature—by visiting the Instagram Help Center.
We can’t wait to see what you’ll create.

Instagram for iOS version 4.0 is currently available for download in Apple’s App Store and Instagram for Android version 4.0 is now available on Google Play.
 

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Google's Knowledge Graph Carousel for Local Search Launched!

Google has officially launched the "Knowledge Graph Carousel for Local Search"

What is the Knowledge Graph Carousel for Local Search?

As stated in Google's announcement "when you search Google for restaurants, bars or other local places on your desktop, you’ll see an interactive “carousel” of local results at the top of the page". Users can then navigate through different available images and by clicking on an image in the "carousel", they will be able to view additional location details.

Although, this new feature/display was only available to a few and in specific devices, it has now been made available to desktop users, in English in the U.S -- new features and languages will be added accordingly.

Original announcement:

Starting today, when you search Google for restaurants, bars or other local places on your desktop, you’ll see an interactive “carousel” of local results at the top of the page.

Give it a go—type or say “mexican restaurants,” or try any similar search for restaurants, bars or hotels. Click on one of the places in the carousel to get more details on it, including its overall review-based score, address and photos. If you want to see more places, click the arrow at the right of the carousel. And you can zoom in on the map that appears below the carousel to restrict your search to only places in a specific area.

While some iPad and Nexus tablet users have seen this new look since December, we’re excited to expand to desktop. The interactive “carousel” is rolling out in English in the U.S.—we’ll add more features and languages over time.

Source: Google's Knowledge Graph Carousel for Local Search announcement

Happy 10th birthday Google Adsense!

10 years ago Google built on an idea and launched a new and innovative platform for web content publishers called Google Adsense, that allowed them to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive media ads that are targeted/linked to site content and audience.

This idea went on to become one of Googles most profitable and important ventures as "the AdSense community has grown to include more than 2 million publishers, and last year alone, publishers earned more than $7 billion from AdSense" (Susan Wojcicki, SVP, Ads and Commerce).

Google Adsense has now become '10' and to celebrate Google hosted a 'hangout' where publishers exchanged stories about how Google Adsense changed their lives and to discuss about the future of online advertising.

Check out Google's Blog for more on Google Adsense and its 10th birthday celebrations!


Google Blog (Celebration 10 years of shared success post)

Customer Relationships - How to Nurture them

In her article about customer loyalty and how to nurture it, Jennifer Wong proposes 6 mobile methods that help you to connect with your customers, maintain an ongoing relationship with them and keep them on board (customer loyalty).

According to the author, the mobile approaches that target cementing a loyal and enduring relationship with your customers are text reminders, polls and surveys, sweepstakes, push notifications, social integration, loyalty and membership programs. An explanation of each is also presented in her article.

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the original article...

Facebook Announcing New Product on June 20

Facebook has announced that it will be launching a new product - and the unveiling will take place on June 20 (Menlo Park, Calif.)... coffee included (as stated and 'displayed via stain' on invite!) :)

 

Thing is, what is Facebook about to unveil? What is this new product? How does it integrate with Facebook user experience? Will it be something that Facebook users will actually take advantage of, make their experience with the popular social platform friendlier or will it be more focused on the advertising aspect of it all?

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the original article...

#FollowMe video service by Twitter!

Twitter has launched a new tool (Powered by Vizify), where users can create shareable videos that also include soundtracks from a wide range (1 million songs by Rublefish!) available and that way display/promote/present their 'social footprint — top tweets, photos and followers'.

Its very simple to use - start by granting Vizify third-party app access. You will then be redirected to their site from where you can edit the available customized video by adding music and images to it, or editing the scenes. As Vizify CEO Todd Silverstein states, "Unlike Vine, there's no time limit, so go wild."

Click on the 'Continue reading' link below to read the entire article:

Facebook Hashtags

Facebook is rolling out the new hashtags feature, where people can use hashtags as a method of becoming part of a larger discussion about a trending topic. Sounds familiar? 

Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest are pioneers within the hashtag trend, and now Facebook follows by allowing you to use their platform in the same way, by making hashtags clickable.  

Simply put, by clicking on a hashtag on Facebook, you will be able to see what other people and Pages are discussing about a topic as well as be a part of public conversations regarding different topics

How to use hashtags on Facebook

By using hashtags (to add a hashtag, use the # next to a phrase or topic and add it to your post) you create topics and phrases into clickable links in posts on your personal timeline or your Page, which consequently allows people to discover posts about different topics they like.

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to take a look at the Facebook announcement:

Google AdWords Keyword Match Types and Negatives

Oh, the value of keywords! They are not only words, they are the link between what you are searching for and finding it! 

But does a keyword alone actually grasp the essence or explain the intention behind a search? That is where match type comes in. It is the most important part of the success of paid advertising. As stated in her article, Lisa Raehsler explains that:

The broader the keyword, the greater the reach, but unfortunately the relevancy can also slip since ads can be served on less relevant keywords. 

She then follows to present a guide of the different match types and how they can be used in order to target searches in the most effective way.

Take a look at the original article by clicking in the 'continue reading' link below:

Google Stock Market

When you hear the word 'real estate' what comes to mind? Houses, apartments, etc., correct? Hmm, what if we take it further? How about websites? Pages? Web advertising space?

All the above make up what is know as your online real estate. Every website is considered 'online' real estate where people can bid for advertising space, promotional opportunities, etc. This is the category where the Google Search Engine fall into. He focuses on this and tells us that the more you focus on the steady improvement of your keyword selection and bidding strategy, the more succesfull you will be and profit from various keywords.

As explained by Howard Jacobson, in his article How to Win in the Google Stock Market:

The Google search engine has a hidden side. Because it sells ad space based on a keyword auction, it's actually a stock market for words. Through slow and steady improvement, you can achieve market domination in one, and then an entire family, of keywords.

Lets take a look at the original article: 

Zuckerberg Denies Facebook PRISM Involvement

Founder and CEO of Facebook,  Mark Zuckerberg, has denied Facebook involvement in the recent PRISM (U.S. National Security Agency's secret Internet surveillance program) scandal.

Facebook company statement regarding PRISM (read below)

"Protecting the privacy of our users and their data is a top priority for Facebook. We do not provide any government organization with direct access to Facebook servers. When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinize any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law."

However, the above statement leaves room for speculation as to Facebook's role in 'a kind of' surveillance attempt(s) through the focus on 'direct access to Facebook servers'. How about third party servers? Are they being used? This vagueness is creating speculation as to the exact role Facebook and other sites are playing in this 'program' as well as the specific strategies used to obtain / provide these types of private data.


Zuckerberg's statement on his Facebook page:

"I want to respond personally to the outrageous press reports about PRISM: Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US or any other government direct access to our servers. We have never received a blanket request or court order from any government agency asking for information or metadata in bulk, like the one Verizon reportedly received. And if we did, we would fight it aggressively.

We hadn't even heard of PRISM before yesterday When governments ask Facebook for data, we review each request carefully to make sure they always follow the correct processes and all applicable laws, and then only provide the information if is required by law. We will continue fighting aggressively to keep your information safe and secure. We strongly encourage all governments to be much more transparent about all programs aimed at keeping the public safe. It's the only way to protect everyone's civil liberties and create the safe and free society we all want over the long term."

Alongside Zuckerberg, heads of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have also denied any involvement.

Facebook to Change/Improve Ads!

Facebook is reported to be changing its advertising options a bit by attempting to simplify the process by cutting down on the options within the ad units that a user can select.
Specifically, advertisers will no longer need to select from a list of 27 different ad units. Rather, they will be able to choose from six or seven options, such as "driving foot traffic to a real-world store or generating "likes" for a company's page".

This looks like a positive change, but will it make an essential difference to the advertiser at the end of the day?

Let's take a look at Alexei Oreslovics's article "Facebook Is Radically Changing Ads To Make Life Simpler For Marketers" in the Huffington Post where he discusses the reasons for the change and what Facebook hopes to achieve with this move.

Social Media Advertising

In his 'SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING: Inside The Massive Rise, And Why It Will Continue' article, Josh Luger tackles the importance of social media advertising in a company's marketing attempts. Where is social media advertising heading? What role does mobile play? How have these and other strategies affected market growth?

As stated in his article:

The media constellation has become increasingly fractured. The Web produced the initial fissure, but mobile created new cracks in the landscape. Today, no single medium earns more than 45% of our media consumption. How can you solve this problem? Social media offers a solution.

So lets take a look at how Social Media Advertising paves the way for  market growth!

Search Engine friendly websites can also be Customer friendly websites

Jay Taylor of Search Engine Watch eloquently explains in his article that you CAN create websites that are both search engine and customer friendly. Many times, we tend to focus more on the search engine friendly part of the equation that we fall into the trap of 'depreciating' the value a visitor (and potential customer) friendly site has for the end customer.

The important this is to keep in mind what interests the customer, what they believe differentiates you from the competition and ultimately triggers him/her to carry on with purchasing your product or service.

The author provides 5 steps you can follow in order to create a website that successfully targets both search engines and customers, and ultimately increase your rankings...

Twitter Advertising and Remarketing: True?

In her article, Lisa Raehsler offers a comprehensive guide as to the different options and uses of Twitter Advertising with 

"elements of cost-per-click, display, and social media ads all wrapped up in 140 characters or less"

... here you can read her article about the different advertising options Twitter offers and how you can take advantage of them.

Moreover, in another article by Jessica Lee's on Twitter Advertising, she considers the rumored use of re-marketing by Twitter where she states that

'Twitter continues to develop its advertising service with a potential stab at retargeting, according to AdAge. Twitter didn't comment on the matter, so it's largely speculation as of now, but AdAge reports those with knowledge of the planned offering say it's on the way." 

This could open doors to a number of new options that advertisers can apply via this scheme and the results it can bring forth.

Furthermore, the author goes on to offer a clear-cut, to the point explanation of the different options available for small businesses and large brands based on the currently available 'self-service and full-service models.

"Advertisers can access options like Promoted Accounts, Promoted Tweets, and Promoted Trends, all with analytics to track progress."

Reviewing Penguin

Two weeks ago, Google's Matt Cutts disclosed the serious impact that the Penguin Update would have on websites, specifically stating that "It's gonna have a pretty big impact on web spam,"... "It's a brand new generation of algorithms. The previous iteration of Penguin would essentially only look at the home page of a site. The newer generation of Penguin goes much deeper and has a really big impact in certain small areas." This resulted in many website managers to expect the worse... but was the worse seen?

As stated in Jennifer Slegg's article, "post Penguin 2.0 launch, even though there's sufficient evidence to support limited panic, we actually find the majority of folks managed to survive the challenges of Penguin and in fact see little or no impact.". She follows with some projections as to what SEO challenges practitioners might encounter and what they can do to solve them... take a look:

CEOs and Social Media? Here are some tips!

Is it a good idea for CEOs to get involved in the social media medium?

Well, as stated by Chad Brooks, Weber Shandwick (PR firm) and KRC Research (Research Partner) support that 'more than three-quarters of executives worldwide believe it is a good idea for CEOs to participate in social media'.

What are the benefits of CEOs being active and getting involved with social media?

As stated in their research, 'more than 70 percent of those surveyed said CEO sociability increases information-sharing throughout the business, improves company reputation, demonstrates innovation, humanizes the company and improves business results.'

Moreover, "CEOs must strategically utilize the right digital platforms that advance their communications — ranging from their own intranet and website to social network pages and feeds to video and image-sharing platforms," as stated by Chris Perry (Global President, Weber Shandwick's digital practice).

As a result of the research, a profile of the most socially active CEOs was put together which includes the following 'traits':

New and improved 'Goals' feature on Google Analytics

If you are a Google Analytics user, and use this tool to measure the results of your Goals (specific URL that you define which determines, if reached, that a Goal has been converted) then you are in for a treat!

In his article, Thom Craver of SearchEngineWatch explains that just last week the Google Analytics Team announced that Google Analytics will now offer a new and improved way of tracking Goals:

From the visual layout of the interface, to setting up new goals and all the way through to reporting, working with your analytics goals has change

Some of the different updates to the Goals feature in Google Analytics are a 'new set-up flow, new templates, and new verification capabilities', which basically offer a friendlier way for the user to measure customer behavior and evaluate performance.