I am sure you have heard the latest buzzwords, social media, social media marketing, word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing and web 2.0. Where did all these terms come from and will you find these terms in the English language dictionary is debatable. However these terms provide a serious benefit in the search engine optimization ranking services and should not be ignored.

Social media websites and networking web sites provide you an easy way to connect with people who share similar interests like you. Some social networking websites group people with common interests, but some websites are “traditional networking sites” and allow you to search for friends based on your interests. So now how do these websites really operate. In websites like MySpace users share music which was what helped rocket MYspace into the well renown place it is today and in Facebook, users create their personal information that they want shared and use pictures, software programs and audio, videos to display or depict their business environment. In websites like Fastpitch, Joe Popular and Adlandpro the users create product and sale pitches and work with each other. Promotiing your website using these new tools is termed social media marketing.

So how can you take advantage of this obviously new but what seems beneficial activity? When you use social media marketing and social networking , you have the opportunity to expose your website to a much larger group of people. When your site becomes popular in a social media site, people talk about your site and the post that becomes popular. Do this is taking advantage of a form of marketing that you may know it as word of mouth. The additional links means that as you grow these natural links from a large number of relevant websites, your rankings improve in the search engine due to increased organic search traffic.

Another advantage is that search engines programs that roam the web are keen on social media and networking websites and typically go after links on these websites. This means if you have your site link on social networking and bookmarking websites, your search engine optimization ranking is better and your website site will be indexed quickly. Getting bookmarked from different users and different social media websites will definitely help your site rank better on search engines.

Like it or not, social media websites have become an integral part of the internet because social marketing is easy to do, search engines love social links and hence your business by default will benefit. So if you are engaged in operating a website, and search engine optimization is important then you must realign your site to exploit the popular social media websites for increased traffic. To take advantage of this new method of building business you need to know what steps to perform? Well explore search engine optimization services. Also explore social media marketing and the difference to social networking websites.

John Mulligan, SEO-PR, interviews Eric Qualman, Global Vice President of Online Marketing for EF Education, at SES New York 2009 about the future of search and social media. Erik describes the future of search as a competition between the major search engines and the various new social media applications such as Twitter and Facebook. As a result, Erik says the value of social media will only help to improve search. Eric goes on to describe the value of social media data with a specific example using Facebook. Erik describes the value of using social media applications that provide real-time data. Erik concludes by referencing his social media experiment as featured on Search Engine Watch to get a reading from the public on which social media application is the most popular. For more information on the next SES conference, please visit: www.searchenginestrategies.com

Do you Tweet? If not, maybe you should.

Perhaps it would be misleading to say that as a job searcher you MUST be on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or other social and business networking sites. But, assuming that you use social media in appropriate and professional ways, being connected and networking in these ways can only help. And, few people would argue that you shouldn’t seize on any edge that you can give yourself in a job market that is widely being called the most competitive in a quarter-century.

Twitter, for those unfamiliar, is a service that allows you to communicate and stay connected with your colleagues, current and former co-workers, friends, family, and other contacts through the exchange of quick, simple answers (140 characters or less) to the question, “What are you doing now?” While the premise is simple-so simple that you might at first question how “Tweeting” (Twitter-speak for posting an update to Twitter) could be helpful in your job search-I would urge you to take another look. Twitter has become vastly popular and you might be surprised at how many of your colleagues, friends, and even top experts in your field or profession are on Twitter.

If you are actively involved with managing your career or conducting a job search, here are just a few benefits that will justify the time you spend setting up your free Twitter account and learning how to use it:

1) Twitter can be a great tool to help you build, enhance, and promote your personal brand. Briefly, your personal brand (as it relates to your career) is what differentiates you and makes you and your contributions uniquely valuable in the workplace. As a job searcher, you can use Twitter to make your followers aware of your expertise, post links to interesting news stories about your industry, or post tips related to your profession. All of these are brand-building activities that will make you memorable to your contacts, boost your credibility, and help set you apart as a leader in your field.

2) Twitter is an extraordinary networking tool. Remember that networking is all about building relationships. Twitter helps you stay in contact with people in your network in a quick and easy way that was never before possible. It will allow you to keep your contacts up-to-date on your job search, it is a great way to learn about unadvertised job openings, and it is often an easy way to get referrals to people you should talk to. Of course, it is important to remember that networking is also about providing reciprocal help, and Twitter allows you a fast, easy way to let people in your network know about job openings you’ve heard about, or give other help or advice to your contacts when they need it.

3) Twitter provides you with a way to connect almost instantly with recruiters and other hiring authorities in your field. More and more recruiters are using Twitter and other social media tools to find candidates for job postings. Some companies are actively encouraging their employees to Tweet about (or discuss on LinkedIn or Facebook) job openings that they are trying to fill. If you are regularly Tweeting about your job search and posting other on-brand Twitter posts, it is just a matter of time before you start uncovering and being referred for attractive job or business opportunities.

Are you convinced? Even for the time-challenged professional (does that describe nearly all of us?), Twitter is easy to use. You don’t even need to be sitting at your computer as Twitter is mobile and can easily be used on your iPhone, Blackberry, or cell phone.

When you are ready to get started, here are some quick tips:

1. Sign up for your free Twitter account and fill out your profile. Remember that you will be using your account for networking and professional purposes, so use discretion and only include information or a photo that you would be comfortable sharing with recruiters, your colleagues, and the world. If you have a reason to keep your business and personal life separate, you should create separate accounts.

2. Search for and “follow” people that you know. Twitter provides easy tools and instructions for doing this. Consider friends, family, current and former co-workers, industry contacts, people you went to college with, etc. Once you are following these people, look through their contacts and selectively follow some of their contacts. Even if you don’t know someone, if you have a reason to do so, follow them. This is a way to build new relationships.

3. As you begin to build your list of people you are following, many will begin to follow you. When you are getting started, try to post Tweets daily-perhaps twice daily. Besides just answering the basic question “What are you doing now?” (always keeping in mind that your Tweets should be appropriate and follow basic rules of etiquette) try to regularly post useful, on-brand information and links.

4. When your contacts Tweet, respond if you can answer a question or have useful information or tips for them. Twitter gives you two ways to do this: direct messages and replies. Be selective about which method you use. A direct message will only be seen by the person you are responding to. A reply will go to everyone that follows you.

5. Search Twitter for keywords. This is a good way to find out what is going on and being discussed on topics of interest to you among people that you aren’t already following. You may also find interesting people that you will want to follow. The place to do that is search.twitter.com

5. Do you have a Facebook account, a LinkedIn profile, a blog, or another website? There are options to link them all and post status updates simultaneously to all of them. This can be a great timesaver, so it is worth taking the time to learn how to link them. You could also consider including your Twitter user name in your email signature files or on business cards. Doing so will quickly build your following, and the larger your following, the more beneficial Twitter will be to your job search and career.

There have been many debates as to whether internet marketing services that use social networking and media sharing web sites to improve search engine optimization really work. Do they actually help your website gain improved search engine rankings? These all have been referred to by terms like social media, social media marketing, word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing and web 2.0. Social websites have become the latest craze on the internet and these terms have become the buzz words.

Social media websites and networking web sites offer the website owner a straightforward approach to bond with another community of people who have related points of views or interests like you. Some social networking websites group people with common interests, but some websites are “traditional networking sites” and allow you to search for friends based on your interests. So now how do these websites really operate. In websites like MySpace users share music which was what helped rocket MYspace into the well renown place it is today and in Facebook, users create their personal information that they want shared and use pictures, software programs and audio, videos to display or depict their business environment. In websites like Fastpitch, Joe Popular and Adlandpro the users create product and sale pitches and work with each other. Promotiing your website using these new tools is termed social media marketing.

How can you benefit and improve your search engine optimization ranking by using social media websites? When you use social media marketing and social networking , you have the opportunity to expose your website to a much larger group of people. When your site becomes popular in a social media site, people talk about your site and the post that becomes popular. This is a form of viral marketing that is word of mouth. The additional links means that as you grow these natural links from a large number of relevant websites, your rankings improve in the search engine due to increased organic search traffic.

Another advantage is that search engines programs that roam the web are keen on social media and networking websites and typically go after links on these websites. This means if you have your site link on social networking and bookmarking websites, your search engine optimization ranking is better and your website site will be indexed quickly. Getting bookmarked from different users and different social media websites will definitely help your site rank better on search engines.

Like it or not, social media websites have become an integral part of the internet because social marketing is easy to do, search engines love social links and hence your business by default will benefit. So if you are engaged in operating a website, and search engine optimization is important then you must realign your site to exploit the popular social media websites for increased traffic. To take advantage of this new method of building business you need to know what steps to perform? Well explore search engine optimization services. Also explore social media marketing and the difference to social networking websites.

Optimizing your blog for the search engines is crucial and very important! There are so many different blogs out there on the net that you’ll quickly sink to the bottom if you don’t optimize. Follow these seven tips below and you’ll be well on your way to high rankings.

#1 – Create the Right Permalink Structure

The permalinks Wordpress uses by default are not search engine friendly. You can make this simple change by inserting %postname% instead of the default that is already there. This will successfully create URL’s that include your post name which should include your targeted keywords.

#2 – Install All in One SEO Plugin

This is a must-have plugin which allows you to specify a title, description, and the keywords for the search engines. It can really help you boost up and reach the top of the listings, whereas the standard WP installation can fall short.

#3 – Install Related Posts Plugin

Search engines love it when they get content pages that are interlinked. It also works very well for the search engines. It will automatically include links to other posts that are similar. Very convenient!

#4 – Research your Keywords

When people search, they search by keyword. It is vital that you know what these keywords are if you want to rank at the top of the search engines. Your posts should be centered around these keywords.

#5 – Include Your Keywords in the Title

In the title of your blog you need to include your main keyword. Also, include your main keyword and select others in the titles of your posts and sprinkle throughout your pages.

#6 – Make Your Blog Easy to Navigate

Easy navigation is essential for your guests and the search engines as it makes it easier for the guests. That means including your blog’s categories, recent posts (to make sure they get indexed) and pages. Easy navigation is also part of choosing a good design.

#7 – Expand the Ping List

When you make a new blog post Wordpress will “ping” the blog search engines. This alerts them that content on your site has changed and ready for guests to view. This can help you get indexed fast so you can start making money even faster. Do a Google search to find an expanded ping list you can include in your wp-admin so you make sure you get as many of these sites to update you as possible.

Using these seven plugins will make your job of ranking highly in the search engines easier than ever. If you’re new to blogging with Wordpress then these terms may seem incredibly strange to you right now. As you study them and go over them a couple times, put them into action and it will start to feel like second nature!

It is much easier for search engines to index text blogs than podcasts or videoblogs. At present, search engines are using link text and the text surrounding the links to podcasts and videoblogs as a means to index their contents. The situation is admittedly a far cry from the ideal but the great strides being seen in the development of technologies towards the indexing of these mediacasts are very encouraging.

Podcasting in Relation to Search Engines

Podcasting is the method of distributing multi-media files over the Internet using either the RSS or atom-syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. This may include, but is not limited to, audio programs and music videos. Podcast can mean both the content and method of delivery while a podcaster is the host or author of a podcast.

The websites of podcasters may offer direct download or streaming of their files. A podcast usually features a single type of show with new episodes introduced regularly or sporadically, although there are podcast networks that feature multiple shows on the same feed. It can be downloaded automatically using software capable of reading RSS or atom feeds.

The term podcasting is technically a misnomer as it combines two words: iPod and broadcasting. It does not require an iPod or over-the-air broadcasting. The “pod” name association stemmed from the popularity of the iPod digital audio player during the time that podcasting began. A lot of other terms have been suggested for use but the term stuck and remained as such.

Like any other regular websites that aim to be found by searchers, search engines have much to contribute towards this end including podcasts. Podcast optimization can be achieved by promoting only one feed. Many podcasters commit the mistake of creating a podcast and then moving over to a different management system which entails promoting a new RSS feed. This usually results to a lot of different feeds for every podcast which may be disadvantageous in the long run.

Another way to get the most out of podcasts is by optimizing the audio file. The findability gap should be closed since a lot of people listen to a podcast on their computers as well as their MP3 players. A landing page can be optimized for each episode of the show as well as the category page. Subscription information that is very visible on the landing page is highly recommended.

Podcasters should also look into building correct and valid feeds with feed validation tools. Since iTunes do not redistribute, a separate feed must be built for it. Doing three separate feeds – a 2.0 feed, a media feed and an iTunes feed is ideal.

The inclusion of a transcript or summary depending on the podcast’s time span is needed. A landing page usually requires just a summary which is a well optimized page covering the podcast’s high points. Some search engines use speech-recognition to determine the relevancy of the podcast.

Quality podcasts may not be easy to find. This is especially true if the desired site is one that has already done the lifting for its searchers including podcast search engines, directories and round up sites. A huge variety of podcasts are available in a wide variety of genres.

The Podcasting Search Engines

Generally, major search engines are not indexing podcasts in a format that is easy to find. However, some podcast-specific search engines seem to have solved some of the problems. Podscope searches for the spoken words within the podcasts themselves. Yahoo! Podcasts is very user friendly and is one of the more consistent and useful in finding good podcasts. Singing Fish provides a whole ream of results by just typing in podcast or bring back audio results only when specified with the use of drop-down menus on the top left. Other worthy research engines includes Podzinger, Blinkx, BlogDigger and Lycos Audio Search.

Aside from search engines, podcast directories are virtual goldmines for finding good podcasts. The Podcast http://Alley.com includes the very useful Top Ten Podcasts of the Month as voted by listeners. The NPR Podcast Directory contains quality podcasts in a subject directory format. The http://Podcast.net categorizes podcasts of various subjects by tags which are available for free download. Podcast Bunker is likewise one of the best places to find quality podcasts on the web.

Search engines have become very useful especially to those who don’t particularly enjoy the search process. http://Podzinger.com allows the user to search podcasts in the same way as searching for anything else in the web. A word or phrase typed in will find relevant broadcasts and highlights the segment of the audio in which they occurred. It is not perfect but it serves the user’s need at this time. It works with a speech-recognition software which transforms audio into words. http://Podscope.com and Blinkx are sites that work in a similar way.

Podzinger and Blinkx are search engines that scour audio content for keywords by translating the audio into text and creating an index for quick searching. This is a step ahead of traditional search engines that can only identify keywords in a podcast’s Meta data such as the headline and introductory notes which describes the audio file’s general content.

Podzinger has officially ended its beta and lets users jump to the spot in a podcast where their search term appears. This is a welcome option to being forced to scan an entire program for pertinent parts such as with Blinkx. The design results to an uncluttered search page similar to those of Google. Podcasters can also link to a searchable index of their content in order to sell sponsored links to text in the index provided by Podzinger.

Both Podzinger and Blinkx include information about the source of the podcast as well as excerpts of text translated from the podcast. This comes with the added convenience of having relevant search terms highlighted. In this regard, Podzinger’s information is more extensive while allowing users to hear excerpts and determine its relevancy before downloading the entire podcast.

Podscope searches podcasts but scans only for sounds of syllable rather than full words. It has operated a keyword search engine for video and radio broadcast since 1999. By far, the Blinkx service is a bit more extensive as it scours thousands of podcast and offers search for 1 million hours of TV news video and the content of academic lectures.

The problem at hand for podcast search is the difficulty in finding what is really needed in podcasts. Relevant results cannot be attained without words thus the heavy reliance on speech recognition software that would help the public search for on-line video and radio content. Podcasts are a priority at this time due to popularity boom it is currently experiencing. The aim is to make the spoken word as searchable as the printed word.