Social media marketing is an ever changing phenomenon that businesses all over the world are utilizing. Anyone that is involved in social media marketing knows the difficulty in measuring ROI.

Well, your worries are over! HootSuite has just launched its own social analytics tool. This new tool will allow HootSuite users to create custom reports with interactive graphs and charts. You can even share your reports with other HootSuite users, so everyone in your organization will have the latest information.

Reports can be set to run at a certain frequency and you can choose what information you want included. The reports will run and be sent automatically. Also, HootSuite’s social analytics will track conversions and traffic from Google Analytics. You just need to sync the accounts and you are ready to go!

According to HootSuite’s explanation of social analytics reports, you can:

• Track Twitter brand mentions
• Measure Twitter profile follower growth
• Examine Facebook Likes and demographics
• Overlay social link clicks and website visits from Google
• Select from over 30 report modules to plug into customizable report templates

The reports can be used by anyone with a HootSuite account. The modules within the reports will be assigned a number of points and your account type will determine how many points you have. Points can be purchased at anytime though if you run out.

These reports will help companies determine what value they are receiving from social media. Companies will be able to see exactly how social media has helped their business and what they need to do to improve it.

The introduction of analytics to HootSuite is a revelation for those seeking to learn more about the effectiveness of their social media marketing. Those in the SEO industry will be able to test their tweets and Facebook status updates to determine which ones are the most successful.

Have you tried social analytics out yet? Do you think it provides useful information?

If you send a tweet about it, you can start using it now. Just go to HootSuite and login! If you are currently using Tweetdeck, check out this great article Sara wrote last month “Tweetdeck vs Hootsuite: The “Twitter Client” Showdown“.

Recently, Experian Simmons DataStream^SM reported that Twitter’s website users in the U.S. are visiting the social microblogging site more frequently in short bursts when comparing 2009 data to 2010. However, the data also showed that overall visits to Twitter are down among American users.

According to the report, visits to Twitter reached an average of 10 visits per month in late November 2010, up from 7.3 visits per month in 2009. This means the average number of visits per month among U.S. Twitter users increased 37% in the last year.

Since Experian Simmons only looked at visits to Twitter’s website this drop suggests that more U.S. users are using Twitter, clients, 3^rd party tools, and applications. Popular tools include Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, and apps such as Flipboard. The absence of data from these Twitter related tool is puzzling, if more people are using them, we need to be measuring the activity. In addition, there is no mention of SMS posts being counted as visits to the site.

This data has led me to conclude that Twitter is becoming more in line with other social networking sites, like Facebook, where users just check in for a few minutes to get the latest news and leave. The report certainly has some holes in it that need to be explored in order to get a better picture of Twitter’s actual activity levels. Personally, I use Twitter to get news on the SEO industry and to check in with local businesses for the latest news and deals.

Despite the drop in overall visits, the fact that U.S. Twitter users are visiting the site more often is a huge leap forward. The data suggests users are more apt to make shorter, more frequent visits to Twitter instead of spending long periods of time on a visit. The increase in visit frequency, accompanied by a drop in session duration, encourages businesses that utilize Twitter to make each Tweet more meaningful rather than just a stream of babble.

Foursquare has fallen by the wayside in recent months. With the launch of Facebook Places and the growing popularity of Yelp, the team at Foursquare is struggling to keep up. Users have been turning away from Foursquare in favor of sites that are social and allow them to share more information.

Unbeknownst to many, Foursquare has been working on a new iPhone app that just launched December 20th. The new app allows users to upload photos and write comments directly on Foursquare.

The ability to upload photos is a great way for users to share more information about their favorite places, like a delicious appetizer or the best seat in the house! Currently, check-in photos are only available to friends and photos connected to tips/locations are public.  BONUS – I read that photos will be able to be exported to Facebook and Flickr soon.

According to Foursquare’s blog, “Comments make meeting up and exploring so much easier.” This new comment feature enables users to discover where their friends are and encourages them to be social offline. It will also allow users to share advice with friends on what to order, do, and see when they check-in to a location.  And don’t worry— comments are only visible to your friends.

This is great news for business owners! Users will share more information about them and be able to encourage their friends to check it out or meet up. Being able to view personal comments and photos will inspire users to try something new.

The best part is… drum roll, please …the app is completely free! So download the Foursquare app from iTunes and start checking-in, commenting, and adding photos straight from your iPhone, iPad, and/or iPod Touch. All the cool kids are doing it!

Google has launched a new search feature called Google Instant Preview. The latest feature gives users a snapshot of what a search result looks like before they even click on it. This is a huge advantage to users as they will quickly be able to determine if a result offers valuable information or not. However, this advantage to users requires SEO professionals to adapt.

Results now have a small magnifying glass next to them that, when clicked on, shows a preview of the result on the right. If users like what they see, clicking on the preview will take them directly to the result’s site. If they don’t, users can move on to the next result. After clicking just once, the Preview option is activated and will appear when hovering over any result on the SERP.

Previews can be closed by clicking on the X in the upper right corner. Some previews even include a quote from the site’s content that is relevant to the user’s search. I have researched this extensively and have not found a rhyme or reason for this yet but will look further into it in the coming weeks. In my opinion, the quote should contain the exact phrase that the user searched on, just like meta-descriptions in the search results.

Google Instant Preview serves as a reminder that website design is an important part of getting visitors. A site that was designed in 2000 and hasn’t been updated since needs a fresh look if it wants to attract visitors. Otherwise, traffic numbers may tank in the coming months.

Introducing Instant Previews is a snapshot of this new feature and how it appears in the SERP’s. Google Instant Previews is a great new feature to help refine searches and results. Search engine marketers must learn to adapt to this and change industry practices accordingly.

Have you heard about the new movie ‘The Social Network’ about the rise of Facebook?  I first heard about this movie while watching a behind the scenes look at Facebook that Diane Sawyer did for ABC News.  On October 1st, ‘The Social Network’ will be released in theatres nationwide.  The movie is based on the 2009 novel ‘The Accidental Billionaires’ by Ben Mezrich.  The movie chronicles the true story of the creation of Facebook which included intense rivalries and backstabbing.  The movie is told from multiple points of views, including that of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as well as other young entrepreneurs who sued him saying the site was their idea.

The movies tagline is ‘you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies’ and labels Mark Zuckerberg a “Punk, Genius, Prophet and Traitor” – view the full trailer below:

I think this is a fascinating take on something that millions of us use every day and may never think where its origins came from.  While Mark Zuckerberg said that he “probably” won’t see the film and that it’s “fiction’, I will definitely be there on October 1st with a bag of popcorn!

What about you – will you go and see ‘The Social Network’?

Just when it seems like Facebook has been integrated everywhere possible, I learned that the social networking site has entered somewhere new (no it’s not Twitter): Microsoft Outlook. Last year, when Outlook launched their Social Connector plug-in it was only integrated with LinkedIn and MySpace. The integration with Facebook as well as Windows Live Messenger was announced yesterday. Social Connector is now available on Outlook 2003 and 2007, making it available to millions.

There are people out there that will frown on this new feature because they only use Outlook for ‘work’. However, I think that connecting with other professionals is important and almost expected nowadays. Networking has always been a key component of starting and advancing one’s career (just ask recent college graduates, it was pounded into our heads!). Now networking is easier than ever before due to social sites including Facebook.

Facebook can be used personally as well as professionally as long as it done correctly and with caution. Do you utilize social networks such as Facebook professionally?

After a couple of failed deals it has finally happened. Yahoo and Microsoft announced this morning that they have partnered on a search deal.

Here are some resources covering the deal:

USAToday.com Press Release

Search Engine Land Conference Call Live Blogging

Here is a recap of the main points from Search Engine Land Deal Details:

The term of the agreement is 10 years

Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms [Note from Danny Sullivan: Exclusive suggests Yahoo itself won't be able to use the technology or develop it, which means after 10 years, what's left probably isn't that useful]

Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology.

Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.

Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.

Yahoo! will innovate and “own” the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology. [Note from Danny: AOL used similar words about how it would somehow make Google-powered search "better" despite not owning the technology. People still went to Google].

Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites.

• Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88% of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O&O sites during the first 5 years of the agreement.
• Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.

Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country. [Note from Danny: What's the amount? And this is far shorter than I'd have expected].

At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million.

The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

This deal is pretty big as you would imagine. Ultimately Microsoft gets Yahoo’s search technology and will integrate it with Bing. There are a lot of unanswered questions still and it will probably be awhile until things shake out(regulatory review by end of the year, integration states early 2010 probably, then work out the bugs for 2 years or so).

Will this really help Yahoo in the long run or will this be another AOL(who by the way, just purchased back their shares that Google owned). As the popular series “Will It Blend” would show:

Yahoo the next AOL?

Thanks to a mention by Anita Campbell on her Small Business Trends blog about our recent domain switch, I’ve had the opportunity to read the comments and have found that many wesite owners don’t understand why switching domains is such a big deal.

I realized that maybe I should have mentioned some of the big issues with switching domains within my inaugural post, as many don’t understand what can happen when you make such a big switch!

Check out 5 Reasons Why Changing Domain Names Can Make Your Web Team “Freak Out”

1997 – 2008 – Stalking TKG.com

April 17th – We Purchased TKG.com from SEDO
April 22nd – SEDO Receives Payment
April 23rd – SEDO Receives Authorization Code from Seller
April 30th -
8:30am – We Finally Gain Control of TKG.com from SEDO
9:15am – Propagation Happened Super Quick – TKG.com is Live
2:30pm – Google Hasn’t Indexed the New Domain Yet (I know it’s really early, but I’m anxious)

We have the benchmarks in place and the new site is live – now how do we make sure we don’t fall off the face of the Earth…more specifically, how do we make sure that Google still finds us?

We put an “over the top” plan into action to help cover all of our bases, just in case something went horribly wrong…

1. 301 redirects via mod-rewrite for all thekarchergroup.com URLs to their corresponding tkg.com pages
2. Update the high priority (top referrals, high PR, authoritative, etc) sites that are already linking to us to our new tkg.com domain
3. Submit an optimized press release announcing the new domain
4. Request that all TKG employees update or add links to tkg.com from their personal blogs, social media profiles, etc
5. Initiatives via Google Webmaster Tools (Corey will explain in detail later)
6. Reach out to industry & influential friends that could help out by way of a link (ok, I admit – this sounds a little like cheating, but if you think about it, this is done all the time for the sole purpose of increasing link popularity, traffic & rankings – at least we’re doing it as part of an educational experiment).