The WebSpecialist Blog

In a move that Marylanders can be proud of, the Maryland legislature has become the first in the nation to ban employers (or potential employers) from requiring or asking for Facebook passwords in order to review an employee's or job applicant's Facebook page from the inside out. 

While this doesn't prevent employers from viewing public Facebook pages, WSI is proud to be in a state that has chosen to act quickly and decisively on this important issue.  Chalk one up for social media account privacy in Maryland!

See full article here. 

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Even if you don't live in Florida, you've probably heard of Elizabeth Wellborn, P.A.  Elizabeth and her law firm in The Sunshine State are dealing with a firestorm of controversy over the recent firing of 11 employees for wearing orange shirts to work one day.  According to multiple online news resources, the employees had been wearing orange shirts on pay day Fridays for a couple of months, to show solidarity when going to happy hour to celebrate after work on those days.

Florida is an "at will" employment state, so the law firm did not have to give any reason for the firings.

Now, it's certainly not our place to judge this law firm's actions, but there is no doubt they have caused themselves a lot of unwanted publicity through this action.  Not only was the story carried by news outlets like Yahoo News, The New York Daily News and the Sun-Sentinel, but of course it was almost immediately being discussed on social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook.  

Perhaps just as important is the fact that the company website was so overwhelmed with visits that its server couldn't handle all the traffic, and many people who attempted to visit the site simply got en error page.  In addition, many Google users immediately took to the law firm's Google Places page to write bad reviews of the company.  Prior to this story hitting the news, the company had no reviews at all (good or bad) in Google.  As of this writing, they have 80 reviews, 79 of them rating the firm only 1 star out of 5. Anyone who has ever tried to get bad reviews removed from Google knows that it is nearly impossible to do so.

As a result, a law firm that was previously happily under the radar online is now facing a nightmarish online reputation.  As we move further and further into the social web, online reputation management (ORM) has become a mandatory part of a well balanced Internet marketing strategy, especially for restaurants and service providers.  A service like this can help a business owner to know when something bad has been said about the company online, and respond to it both quickly and appropriately. 

WSI offers online reputation management services individually, or as an add-on to more comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) services.  Contact us if we may be able to help your company stay on top of your online reputation before you find yourself in your own nightmare.

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If you follow social media news, you might have noticed that Pinterest, a relatively new social networking site, has been making the news lately. You may have shrugged it off or ignored any articles about it, thinking, "What's the big deal? It's just another little social networking site that will never make it off the ground or become important."

However, Pinterest has done the complete opposite of falling into obscurity. Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social networking sites around. Daily users have grown at a rate of 145% since the start of 2012. Users of the site spend approximately 72 minutes on the site per day! That's a huge amount of time.

So what is Pinterest? It's basically an online visual bookmarking site. You can "pin" images that you find from around the web to various "pinboards" on Pinterest. You can also browse other users' pinboards to see what they have pinned.

Who is using Pinterest? 97% of Pinterest's Facebook fans are women. This might be because Pinterest's own About page describes itself as a place to plan weddings, decorate homes, and organize recipes – generally activities favored more by women than men.

Have you tried out Pinterest? What are you using it for? Let us know in the comments!

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Facebook is talking about it. Google and Bing are allegedly obsessing about it. And all the little guys are even wondering about it. The "it" in question is local web optimization. So why is everybody buzzing about local when once upon a time the desired SEO goal was global domination?

Easy. As searches become more specialized, users are directed to businesses, people and places within steps of wherever they're using their laptop or smart phone. Therefore it's more vital than ever for small businesses to make sure their hours of operation, location and services are correctly listed online. Updating business profiles on search engines should be part of a local SEO strategy. Now more than ever, small companies are invited to be empowered by staying in control of their website, social media and search engine results. And we think that's great news. Viva local!

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Baltimore SEO gurus and Internet marketers have been waiting for the latest algorithm update from Google Panda. After all, the company clearly stated that Panda would be taking a holiday nap but would be back in action at the beginning of the year. And it appears that the wait is over: Panda 3.2 came roaring back last week and the updates are causing some marketers to cheer.

This 10th refresh apparently addresses issues with Panda's last update. Marketers, according to Brafton.com, are reporting that traffic levels have been restored to near pre-Panda levels. And because there have been no changes in terms of ranking signals, it seems this latest Google update, while important, is fairly minor. This round of adjustments is one in a series of 500 changes Google plans to make to its various search algorithms this year.

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Mobile websites make talking to your smartphone-obsessed clients incredibly easy. But when a social media site updates its mobile capability, you can be sure that users are applauding. And that's just what Google+ has done recently to keep pace with other social media giants like Facebook and Twitter.

According to Mobileburn, the new mobile version of Google+ features a "What's Hot" newsfeed which informs users of friend updates and trending topics. Also, users are now able to see who's given one of their posts a +1 (which is the Google+ version of a Facebook like). These updates are intended to allow for desktop-like sharing from the ease of a smartphone. Sharing is one of the main draws of social media, and Google+ hopes to capitalize on that. Like any good mobile website, Google has gotten rid of features that were redundant and slowed down use, like the much-griped-about Incoming column. The changes will pop up soon on the latest versions of the app for the basic web, OS and Android.

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As a company, we'd like to think that our clients are willing to show their support for the work we do for them by "liking" our company page on Facebook. We also hope they might share our company Facebook page with their Facebook friends. But the hard truth is that it's been an uphill battle for us - and for many other companies we talk to. Now a November 2011 report from eMarketer.com is making us feel at least a little better.

According to the report, it's common for Facebook users to resist "liking" companies. Citing a Crowd Science survey, the report states that only 9% of Facebook users currently "like" a branded Facebook company page - and that the reasons for liking the page were most frequently to "show support" (typically friends and family of owners and employees) or because they "enjoy what is being said" - not because they liked the company's products or services.

Also important is that of those who "liked" a branded retailer's Facebook page, the most common reasons were to seek out sales and promotional codes, and to share both positive and negative reviews. Less than 50% said they liked a page in order to follow company news and updates, or participate in a conversation with the company or its fans. Yet these are two reasons most often given for why companies create Facebook pages.

Maybe it's time for companies to move away from branded pages on social media sites, and simply stick to advertising on them instead.

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Maryland Internet marketing and social media marketing specialists often sing the praises of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but a new study from eMarketer shows that users are spending hours on other social sites that your brand might want to consider.

Got a visual-based business like fashion or interior design? Maybe you should take a look at Pinterest. The make-your-own inspiration board sharing site has grown massively since last year and eMarketer reports that the average user of Pinterest spends 72 minutes a day on the site. Brands are taking notice and bringing shopping ideas and product suggestions to the site at warp speed.

Looking to market to Eastern European customers? Then Odnoklassniki might be for you. Odnoklassniki is the Russian version of Facebook but brings in users from around the globe. And those users, according to the study, spend a whopping six hours a day on the site! International brands have already logged on and are having a global conversation with customers they could never reach on Facebook.

Lastly, if you're marketing a game or products for gamers then you can't miss with Tagged.com. Tagged users spend two hours a day on the site as they play games with one another while chatting. Tagged takes social gaming to the next level, and companies big and small are trying to figure out inventive ways to use the site to communicate with young gaming audiences.

And yet even more social media sites recorded increases in time spent from users. Tumblr racked up an impressive 82 minutes a day from visitors while China's microblogging site Sina Weibo had a major bump with 69.8 minutes a day.

And yet if Facebook is where you want to stay put, you're certainly not wasting your time. The study says the average Facebook user spends a staggering 6.1 hours a day updating their status, playing games and uploading photos.

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Considering a Twitter brand page as part of your Maryland Internet marketing plan for the new year? Then this is a study you'll want to take a look at.

SimpleUsability followed four of the 21 brand pages that went live last month on Twitter. The testing and marketing firm zoned in on the things followers like and loathe about brand pages. Unlike Facebookers, Twitter users have zero patience for overly corporate tweets and will delete brands that aren't conversational. The study also found that on the whole, Twitter users won't return to brand pages since most of the brand's news will show up in tweets anyway. However, users are more likely to return if the brand is sponsoring a contest or game. Lastly, the study found that sales-heavy brand pages quickly lost followers.

Twitter brand pages were released in December and only time will tell if they will hurt or help the chatty nature of Twitter that social media marketers and consumers love.

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Happy New Year! Perhaps the arrival of 2012 has sent you searching for experts in Maryland web design. Now is the perfect time to spruce up your website, change your Internet marketing plan and beef up your web presence. With all of the options and possibilities, the task of narrowing down our website resolutions seems a daunting one. That's why we've put together a list of website resolutions that are guilt-free, effective and easy to follow through on.

1) Get Inspired: Whether it's a total website built from the ground up or just a little facelift for an existing website, it's always good to get inspired. Review the websites of companies within your industry and make a list of things you like (and don't like) about them. That way when the time is right, you'll be walking into your web designer's office with examples of what you want. Everyone building a website for his or her business should take a crash course in what the company's contemporaries are doing — and scoping out the competition in your field online is a great way to do that. Just remember to be open to suggestions from your web consultant - as they do this stuff every day.

2) Be Social: If you have an existing website and are wondering why people aren't visiting it, maybe it's because you're not talking about it. Social media is the fastest way to get the word out about your site. Take 2012 to shamelessly promote your brand by commenting on popular blogs, sending tweets that inform your following of the latest company news and regularly update your Facebook page with videos, photos and blogs that will direct traffic back to your site. An effective social media marketing plan can be carried out in less than an hour a day and can put your site back on the map.

3) Keep Evolving: Maybe one website redesign is all you have the budget for and constant updates are a pipe dream. That's okay. A limited budget doesn't mean your site has to stay the same until you get more cash. Content is king and by regularly updating your company's blog, creating newsletters, posting links to social media pages and posting fresh images, you get the perks of an updated site without the cost. Make a resolution to find ways to keep your website interesting and fresh. Your customers will thank you for it.

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