Local Search Connects Business with Consumers » best internet marketing strategy

Red Label News is not exactly a household name. But yesterday afternoon, it was one of the top news sources on Google News for stories about Apple’s iTunes song previews.
How’d that happen? Red Label News, it appears, is a cleverly designed collection of links and headlines meant to game Google News rankings.
CNET stumbled upon Red Label News after doing one of the most basic Google searches: the vanity search. In this case, we were attempting to figure out how many news outlets were writing about

Facebook Offers Local Deals for Mobile Users

admin — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 07:16:26 +0000

By JENNA WORTHAM

Facebook introduced a feature on Wednesday that will allow retailers and other merchants to offer coupons and special deals through its mobile application, intensifying competition in the market for mobile searches and advertising. People who use Places, Facebook’s location feature, will see a yellow icon indicating that a redeemable deal or coupon is available nearby. They can then use the application to “check in” at the store or restaurant and show their phone’s screen to an employee to claim their deal.

“We’re enabling merchants to push deals out to their existing customers and hopefully attract new customers,” said Tim Kendall, director of monetization at Facebook, during a press event at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

Mr. Kendall said Facebook would not charge businesses directly to list coupons and special deals through the mobile application. Instead, businesses can purchase advertising to publicize their offerings on Facebook, he said. One of Facebook’s first partnerships involving the new Deals feature is with the Gap. The company outlined a campaign offering a free pair of jeans to the first 10,000 users who check into their local Gap store using Facebook’s mobile application.

Facebook also plans to work with nearly two dozen major chains like H&M, 24-Hour Fitness and McDonalds for special offers. But eventually all merchants and small businesses with a Facebook Places page will be able to offer deals.

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Facebook Deals: Bargains are enticing to those who’ve resisted location-based services

admin — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 19:27:23 +0000

You’ve no doubt heard of Foursquare, the mobile service that allows people to “check-in” at a location and tell their social networking friends where they’ve arrived.

I can usually get into most of the newest tech trends. I was on Facebook the first day the service would welcome me. Same with Twitter, long before I had any idea what I was doing there. But “checking-in” was something that was just never appealing to me.

Until now.

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Google gives marketers Christmas insights via new website

admin — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 23:11:58 +0000

BizReport : Ecommerce : November 02, 2010

Marketers who want to keep their finger on the pulse of what consumers are searching for, what they are buying and what they plan to buy for the 2010 holiday season should check out Google’s new website – ThinkHoliday.

by Helen Leggatt

The website is full of information and insights into what consumers are searching for, trends in interest for key dates such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday as well as counting down the days until Christmas. If you think it’s too soon to be thinking about tinsel and snow, think again. According to ThinkHoliday, almost three-quarters of consumers have already begun researching gifts and even more, 89%, have started shopping online.

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Social media midterm election coverage plays big

admin — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:05:53 +0000

November 2, 2010 | 11:11 am

Twitter, Facebook, Google and Foursquare all did their bit for democracy Tuesday with election-themed widgets and services appearing on their pages.

Facebook featured an online vote counter, which appears at the top of a user’s feed and allows users to click to say they voted, which earns them an “I voted” badge they can use a profile picture.

As of 11 a.m. PDT, the counter had been clicked more than 4 million times. It also includes a link to a Google-driven polling-center locator service. Facebook’s U.S. politics page featured the widget prominently alongside updates from politicians’ feeds.

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