Can I Use That?

Whether you're a blogger jazzing up your home page, a business setting up their website, or an organization posting on your Facebook page, this same question is bound to come up at one point or another throughout your social networking:

Am I allowed to use that?

If you haven't asked yourself this yet, I suggest that after reading through this, you go back and double-check your past work, but we'll get to "why" in a moment.

When I say "that," what am I referring to? In this case, I'm talking about pictures, but the same question can come up for quotes, copyrighted written material, articles, music, giveaway procedures, etc.

We live in a generation where a picture is now not only worth a thousand words, but it's also worth a click, a few +1's on Google+, a dozen likes on Facebook, some retweets, re-pins, and ultimately whether or not you reach your audience efficiently.

The Benefits of Social Integration: Coachella

It's that time of year again. The time where girls and guys pile into a car and drive to Indio, California to experience the epic three-day music festival known as Coachella. Tomorrow marks the kick-off to weekend 1 of 2. As one of the biggest music festivals in the United States, people around the country take to every social media outlet to upload their pictures, talk about their experiences, and check-in to the event. But what about those who couldn't make this year? Not to worry. As has occurred in the previous two years, Youtube will be live streaming weekend 1 of Coachella starting tomorrow and ending Sunday. It seems that they have everyone covered, going or not, making their social media efforts noteworthy. Here is a deeper look into their social media usage:

Social Media Mobile Apps and Restaurants

In today's society, roughly 46% of American adults own smartphones (as of 2012). With almost half of the U.S. using these devices, it's no wonder that businesses in all fields are doing their best to make their company mobile-friendly. Restaurants across America have been working over the years to bring two of my favorite things together: social media and food.

Let's face it: there's no reason to NOT be using social media in order to buy and sell food as a restaurant and/or consumer. According to Mashable, 94% of smartphone users look for local information, 27% of them looking daily. And, of that 94%, 90% have taken action as a result. In fact, 24.2% of U.S. smartphone users use their mobile devices to place orders at restaurants ahead of time.

How can a restaurant adequately engage their customers through mobile phones? The two biggest ways include online ordering and delivery apps and rewards apps. I've gone ahead and broken down some of the top-used restaurant apps. Take a look:

Teens Continue To “Pheed” the Social Media Fire

What is the current #1 free social app in Apple's App Store? Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Nope. The answer may surprise you, because you probably have not heard of it-yet. Pheed is one of the hottest social media apps right now, and rightfully so. It has been getting a lot of buzz around the internet, as people have become increasingly fascinated with the app that has finally outshined the major social media players.

Google Pay Per Click 101 Plus Some

GOOGLE ADWORDS 101 PLUS SOME!

On a monthly basis, I have several clients who run pay-per-click campaigns and I would say my knowledge of PPC and AdWords is an intermediate level.  On Wednesday I received a call from "Google."  Yes, a legitimate call from a Google representative and if a Google representative calls and wants to talk to you about your current pay-per-click ad campaigns, answer it, put them on hold, grab your laptop and a drink, and expect an informative education about Google's latest updates and additions to pay-per-click.

How to Develop and Maintain Your Social Image

Whether you're a business, brand, professional or amateur blogger, or simply an individual looking to have their voice heard on social networking, one of the most important steps you can take in the realm of social media is to establish your public image and maintain it on networking sites. Take a look at these four steps for getting started.

Step One: Who are you? Who do you want to be?

SMB Dallas Recap- Using Data to Drive Social

The first SMB Dallas meeting of 2013 took place this morning in the offices of Freeman+Leonard / BravoTECH where Eric Swayne of Golin Harris spoke to a full crowd about finding, using, and tackling the world of "Big Data". Many (including myself) tackled the troublesome traffic on the Dallas North Tollway to learn how to understand just what big data is and how to use it. If traffic got the best of you and you were unable to attend this morning's meeting, I hope my blog proves helpful for you! Enjoy.

It's All Social - Building Business Relationships, Socially

It's All Social

Guest Blog Post for Atomic Design and Consulting by Kay Byfield

People Are Social

Humans started working together eons ago in order to meet the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter. This led to teams, clans, tribes, cities, and states. Over time, necessities, and many of our relationships, began to be provided through commerce.  All of these associations are social.

To be successful, businesses must provide a necessary product or service and find ways to make it available to the consumers who want it.  That requires design, production, sales and marketing, distribution, and customer service.

These functions all involve people of course. Employees, investors, customers, competitors, regulators, suppliers, and communities all have relationships with the business and the other stakeholders. In the broadest sense, whenever there is an interaction among them, it is social.

Using Social Media

Google Authorship and Page Rank in 2013

Does implementing rel=author just make you want to throw the laptop across the room?  After many hours of teeth gnashing and repeated blows to the head by my desk, I have (hopefully) created the steps below to prevent someone else from nubs that use to be teeth and cranial goose eggs.  Below is a fundamental step-by-step guide of implementing your rel=author information on your website, but let's start with a little information about it.

PageRank in 2013:

SMC Dallas Recap: Search and Social with Rob Garner

Between the great turnout, the free food provided by i Fratelli (thanks again!), the hashtag "#smcdallas" trending on Twitter, learning valuable information about the compliments search has on social (and vice versa) from the night's speaker Rob Garner, and enjoying a beverage after-hours at the new Mockingbird Taproom, The first SMC Dallas event of the year set a high bar for the rest of 2013.

Focusing on the importance of understanding and interacting with your audience as a marketer, Garner stressed the successful feedback brands would receive for being "always present." This served as one of the many key bullet points given by Garner for transitioning from traditional marketing methods to "real-time" marketing.

Real-time Marketing and Language