At the end of August, Amanda and I headed up to Boston for 4 beautiful days in the historic city. We could not have experienced nicer weather, which made sitting in the conference rooms difficult but luckily the speakers and panelists for Inbound 2012 created “not-to-miss” presentations.   Here are 25 lessons that we learned at Inbound, and they’re easily tweetable by just clicking on the link next to the quote.   Don’t you love when I make your life so easy!?   30-40 landing pages earn 7 times more leads than 1-5 landing pages. Publish often. Don’t be a [...]

A while ago you proudly published a blog post that you thought was one of your best works yet. It got a decent number of views, but once you started posting other content it got buried under everything else. Well, why not bring it back? There are various reasons why repurposing content makes sense for businesses. For one, it can save a lot of time when you’re too busy to create new content for your website. Also, it makes the most out of what you publish, ensuring that your hard work pays off. Through repurposing content you can cater to [...]

Only amateurs see Pinterest as just an online scrapbook. Savvy business owners know that it can be much, much more than that. Pinterest can actually function as something like a free focus group, measuring customer reaction to various products or topics. In a webinar at 4:45 on Thursday April 12, we will be sharing all sorts of tips on using Pinterest for business, focusing on four case studies that we have found extremely helpful. Make sure that your register for the upcoming webinar- you don’t want to miss it! Even if you can’t make 4:45pm, you should register to receive [...]

As at many other things, the University of Virginia is pretty good at Pinterest. Thomas Jefferson’s university boasts 15 Pinterest boards that range from the practical (What’s New At UVA) to the creative (Wahoo Crafts & Decor) Anyone looking to use Pinterest for business can learn a lot from UVa’s Pinterest page. In the spirit of Mr. Jefferson’s love of lifelong learning, we are pleased to present a few key Pinterest tips. For more great Pinterest case studies, check out our Pinterest for Business guide! Pinterest for Business 101: The University of Virginia Lesson #1: Know Your Audience UVA does [...]

  Everyone is talking about Google’s recent and upcoming search changes. Okay, maybe not everyone, but the techie world is certainly buzzing, and with good reason. Google recently announced several immediate and future changes to the Google search algorithm. Every SEO-conscious business owner should be paying attention to these changes. They will change SEO best practices for small businesses and large businesses alike, and they will also change your content creation strategy. These search changes can be broken down into two categories: making search results more direct and making search results more social (Photo: Google).  Google is striving to make their search results more direct and intuitive- what does [...]

You’ve probably heard of Wikipedia. The collaborative online encyclopedia is one of the top-ranking search engine results for a huge variety of subjects, and its user-generated content platform has generated a lot of debate. What you might not know is that the same technology behind Wikipedia can be usedstreamline your business’ content management systems. Wikipedia is simply the most famous example from a long line of wikis- user generated content management systems that have become a booming trend in the online business world. Basically, wikis are simplified webpages that allow multiple users to edit and curate content. On Wikipedia, any user can [...]

  You’ve spent so much time making your business computer-savvy and Internet-friendly. You’ve developed a sophisticated website, built up some SEO credit, and optimized all of your content. Surely all of that hard work will transfer to someone’s smartphone, right? Wrong. Making businesses mobile friendly is an entirely different ballgame, and its one that your business should not sit on the bench for. By 2013, more users will access the Internet via mobile devices than via desktop or laptop computers. This means that, in the very near future, most of your business could be coming directly from smartphones. So, what’s the difference between making businesses [...]

OttoPilot Media has recently jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon.  If you are not familiar with this addictive new social networking platform, it is a website that allows you to “pin” items that you see and like onto your own personal “boards” that ultimately reflect who you are and what you like.  This in turn creates an inbound link back to the original website that the image was found on.  Since inbound links are extremely important for SEO, Pinterest is becoming a very popular social media tool for websites and businesses. If you are already drinking the Pinterest kool-aid like we are, you [...]

In the ever-evolving world that is online marketing, there are always new social media sites being created.  Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin are by far the most popular, but how can you tell which other sites are worth trying? Well, we know of one that has been gaining huge popularity and importance in online marketing, Google+. First off, what is Google+? Google+ (pronounced “Google Plus”) is a social networking site where you can post content and connect with others.  What makes it different from Facebook or any other site, is how you can organize your connections (into “Circles”) to better share information with the people [...]

  If you’ve been following my conversations on Twitter (or @mandaleebee’s conversations for that matter), you know that I am already tremendously excited for my first SXSW (South-by-Southwest) Interactive experience.  As a newbie, I’ve been relying on my seasoned SX friends and new Twitter friends to guide us in the right direction. {For those of you who are not familiar with SXSW it is a three part conference/festival in Austin, Texas every March that celebrates music, film, and interactive} I mean, what do I wear?  What should I bring?  What parties are cool and what is a “can’t miss” event?  What is a [...]