No matter what you find yourself on twitter for, many people wind up getting obsessed about their following count. In spite of the overwhelming amount of information available on the Internet about “how to increase your follower count on twitter”, very few accounts actually have a four digit , much less five  or six digit follower count. Now the big trap is to get caught up in the follower account because many of these high follower profiles wind up having low valuable followers.
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There are many moments in your daily life when you will need to know certain things but you don’t have access to a your laptop or computer, what do you do?  Mobile of course.

Now what about the fastest way to get search info on your mobile?

So you use your favorite app or you open up your mobile browser to do a quick search? Makes sense, but sometimes what turns out to be quick gets you stuck surfing the net or painfully dealing with a slow app…especially for us blackberry storm loyalist.  Sometimes the fastest approach is through the quick text. (more…)

Have you ever been in a situation where you don’t seem to get the right words to speak? It happens when you are about to do a search on Google. Sometimes, you are just not able to word your searches well enough to allow Google to fetch you your information.

Google Goggles, brings in a unique feature to Google’s already growing suite of applications. It will now enable an application on Google’s Android phones and will allow you to conduct searches using images taken from your mobile phone. (more…)

Projecting results from SEO can be challenging for both marketers & agencies, so how do we properly understand the payoff benefits from embarking on a search engine optimization plan?

Well to start, just like any other marketing project you will need to know where you have been to know where you are going.   It is funny how marketers familiar with traditional media can make assessments easily on performance but when Search Engine Optimization projects lands on their laps a theoretical black hole of evaluation exits.

Projecting results from SEO does not have to be that difficult, but it is a process that does require a few benchmarking sessions to make sure that your project is on track and that you are focusing on the right metrics

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Having solid Google Maps Rankings is increasingly important as the placement of 7 or 10 results from Google Maps has become the mainstay for local search engines searches.  Just 6 months ago, Google Maps placements were still not consistent for local search results but obviously times have changed and your need to be placed within the top results has become critical for any business.

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Best Practice Email Design Templates Can Increase your ROI

Employing Best Practice Elements is critical to maximizing your ROI from your email marketing campaigns.   In 2009, marketers are shifting dollars from traditional media into areas like Search Marketing & Email Marketing as they need to see higher overall ROI on declining marketing budgets.  Opt-in Email Marketing will continue to rise as it provides a low cost approach to building brand engagement, retaining customer relationships and generating revenue.  Providing the basic best practice elements for your email design templates can go a long way in maximizing your ROI.

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Path Interactive’s Call Tracking solution for paid search advertising, CallPath was featured today in the product review section of Digital Media Buzz.

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According to Comscore, Bing’s search share rose another .4% at the expense of Yahoo!.  Some of the interest is Bing is just that…interest.  One theory that we are looking into is the thought that a lot of Bing’s search market share usage is compare/contrast searching across search engines.  

To validate this theory, we took a look at a small sample of our Paid Search clients’ activity from the first week of July compared to last July and crossed referenced IP addresses on click activity.   There was a marginal imcrease in duplicate IP clicks across search engines (Bing, Google, Yahoo!)  so we are going to take the time to furhter evaluate the results and share what we find out.

Below is the June market share according to Comscore:

June 2009 U.S. Core Search Rankings

Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in June with 65.0 percent of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites (19.6 percent), and Microsoft Sites (8.4 percent). Ask Network captured 3.9 percent of the search market, followed by AOL LLC with 3.1 percent.

      comScore Core Search Report

June 2009 vs. May 2009
Total - U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch
                                                Share of Searches (%)
                                                --------------------
                                                                    Point
                                                                    Change
                                                                  Jun-09 vs.
    Core Search Entity                      May-09      Jun-09     May-09
                                                                 ----------
    Total Core Search                       100.0%       100.0%       N/A
    -----------------                       -----        -----   ----------
    Google Sites                             65.0%        65.0%       0.0
    ------------                             ----         ----        ---
    Yahoo! Sites                             20.1%        19.6%      -0.5
    ------------                             ----         ----       ----
    Microsoft Sites                           8.0%         8.4%       0.4
    ---------------                           ---          ---        ---
    Ask Network                               3.9%         3.9%       0.0
    -----------                               ---          ---        ---
    AOL LLC                                   3.1%         3.1%       0.0
    -------                                   ---          ---        ---

* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. 

Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the 

core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

Path Interactive has moved!

Well, we finally got to getting set up in our new marketing and sales office in Manhattan. The new offices are located down in the Flatiron district at 915 Broadway on the corner of 21st. We are happy with the new location; it is convenient for clients and a much better area for after work cocktails to blow off some steam.

After a few months of transition between the Midtown Manhattan search marketing office and Flatiron we finally transitioned the whole team. We are already looking at adding some more space in the building, as our client continue to see positive growth on their search marketing campaigns.

Come down and see us when you can.

Best……Mike C

Michael Coppola is Founder & CEO at Path Interactive, a NYC-based search engine marketing firm.

Well, obviously everywhere.  There is no surprise here that the crossover continues to move at an incredible pace.  Everyday we see a few more marketers find a place for Twitter in their marketing mix, even if there is no real strategic approach to using the platform to further their objectives.

For top brand marketers to small businesses to celebrities, twitter continues to provide a new outlet for communication.

At the end of the day, the real-time web’s social element is the key motivating factor for use.  Move aside the early adopting tech heads who compare sizes of their iPod application centers and you find the highest form of social communication: gossip!    Straight, simple, irrelevant and highly entertaining celebrity gossip!

Twitter the personal celebrity PR Agency – for a few seconds a day

I admit that in my most private moments, my eyes drift over to the wife’s recent copy of Us Weekly to check out what’s happening with my favorite stars. (I really did not say that and don’t tell her).  What caught my eye was how adopted Twitter has become in mainstream media.  The feature was “Trend Alert! Stars Who twitter”, and although celebrities have been rifling out their “tweets” for a while now, it looks like it has found a home for exposure in one of the top gossip weeklies.

John Mayer twitter and other celebrities

Celebrities like John Mayer: twitter.com/johncmayer, Tina Fey: twitter.com/tinafey, Britney: twitter/britneyspears and Demi: twitter.com/mrskutcher all got highlights in Us Weekly to further their gossip brand with quoted “tweets” that readers gobble up.

Twitter provides a real point of personal engagement for celebrities with their fans.  It also allows them to reinvigorate their brands by keeping them young, relevant and youthful, yes Demi…you’re always 25 to me.

Celebrities can also use their “tweets” to misguide, manage spin and create controversy just like their PR agencies are challenged to do.  Most importantly the real-time web allows them to respond to the trends and stem rumors before they get out of hand.  PR in a few seconds can go a long way for both sides of the rumor mill.

Brand Gossip is just not as fun on twitter

Just like celebrities, Marketers need to figure out how to make it work for their brands. The reality is that brands with raving fans like John Mayer are going to have a much easier time attracting and keeping a following. Marketers for less popular brands need to think outside the box to tap into some unique content or gossip of relevance, or create new ways to capitalize on the real-time web.

Path has had some success adopting twitter for clients and we will highlight a few of these in coming posts.

What marketers do you think are doing it right?  Wrong?  Share your thoughts and let us know.

Michael Coppola is Founder & CEO at Path Interactive, a NYC-based search engine marketing firm.