OK, here’s an infographic with some interesting stats about who uses social media.

If you thought rich white guys with college degrees ruled the internet, then you are either a) living in Silicon Valley or b) not looked at the latest studies from Pew Research Center.

The infographic does a great job of breaking down different demographics and social media usage However, take a look at the list of social media sites adults use, see any glaring omissions?

Infographic via DocStoc

You know that a bad Google reputation is bad for your business, right?

Well, just in case you’re comfortably living in ignorance, let this infographic be a wake-up call for your company. With 78% of consumers researching your brand before making a buying decision and 75% of consumers influenced by negative search results, you may want to make sure that you’re putting forward your best search engine reputation.

And, just in case you need help with your search engine reputation management, we can help with that!

Get a free quote!

Infographic via Infomonkeys.

We’ve made plenty of attempts to describe the different people talking about your brand online. You have your customers, your employees, your stakeholders…and at this point, generally your eyes glaze over.

We get it. So we set out to get our point across in a more memorable manner–a MEMEorable manner, if you will.

Presenting “The People Talking About Your Company Online” as portrayed by the many internet memes you’ve come to know and love.

Please tweet, share, Like, and all of that good stuff or we’ll go back to posting boring text lists.

You have to click to enlarge this one, it’s epic!

Once again, thanks to our friends at Avalaunch for their awesome infographic skills.

There are a lot of great reasons for using Trackur’s social media monitoring dashboard, but some are not as obvious as others. I wanted to start a series of tips for power-users, highlighting some of these cool ideas.

First up, is a great tip for all of your search engine optimizers–lovingly known as SEOs. Why not user Trackur to look for all the mentions of your company and check to see if they’ve included a link back to your web site? Enter your company name and load your results. You can then sort by positive sentiment, or by most influential, and start reviewing for any backlink opportunities.

Want to get real creative? Search for articles that include both your company name and your main targeted anchor text keywords, like this:

From there, you can see all of the posts that cite your brand and your desired keyword–a double win if you eventually convince them to link back to your site.

Or, why not be a little sneaky? Search for articles and blog posts that mention your competitors and reach out to the journalist/blogger and introduce your company? Don’t be pushy, but perhaps you could convince them to add your company to their existing post.

I generally don’t like to make comment about our competition. With Google Alerts, I will make an exception.

With the recent announcement that Google Reader is shutting down, news that Google Alerts has become inconsistent with its email alerts means that it too may be doomed to closure. The latest Google Alerts complaint comes via an open letter from The Financial Brand…

Starting sometime last year, The Financial Brand started receiving fewer and fewer Google Alerts. And when the Alerts did arrive, they contained fewer and fewer results. It’s gone from lots of Alerts, to many, to some, to a few… down to a trickle. Users can forget about creating any new Alerts — those pretty much won’t work at all. Indeed the volume of Alerts has decreased by at least 80%, dropping from 20-35 emails per day with 4-12 results each down to 4-8 emails per day with 1-3 results each. And the results are crummier than ever.

Ouch. I can say that because prior to building Trackur, I was a fan of Google Alerts. In fact, even with Trackur, I’ve always told people that Google Alerts is perfectly fine for 90% of those that need to monitor their reputation. I may have to stop saying that.

So, if you’re a Google Alerts user that is no longer getting your email alerts, we invite you to come and try Trackur. All of our social media monitoring plans–including the free monitoring plan–include email alerts. Simply set up your search and click on the email icon–it’s as easy as that. Here’s how our email alerts look in your inbox:

Unlike Google Alerts, Trackur includes Twitter, Facebook, as well as new, blogs, video, images and much more!

Want to give it a try? Sign up for a free 10-day trial and then email us at help AT trackur.com and we’ll give you your first full month at half price! I actually hope Google Alerts gets fixed, but if not, we’re standing by to help fill the void.

As someone that has spent most of my career helping businesses to get found, get customers, and get a great reputation, it pains me to have to look for a local business provider.

It’s 2013 and the internet is not a fad that only large corporations are utilizing. It’s an intrinsic part of our lives. So why is it that many local businesses still fail to grasp the  concept of making a great first impression.

I’ve spent the last week or so researching everything from chiropractors to tennis courts and just about every local business web site I come across is guilty of at least one of these faux pas.

1. Who are you?

Don’t assume that I’ve heard of you. Don’t even assume I know what it is that your business offers. Too many local businesses treat their web sites like a brochure they provide only to those people they’ve actually spoken with. Assume that the vast majority of visitors to your website have never heard of you and may not ever contact you for further information. So, make sure they know who you are, what you do, and why they should trust you.

2. Where are you?

Just yesterday I had to find the location of a tennis court, here in Raleigh. I knew the name of the club and I even knew the sub division they are located within. However, after arriving at their web site, I could not for the life of me find their physical address. They just assumed that I’d know where they were located. Aside from the benefits of being listed in places such as Google Local, putting your address at the bottom of every page is just common courtesy. Include a link to an online map, and you earn bonus points!

3. How do I contact you?

Likewise, why is it so hard to figure out how to reach you? Perhaps you have your phone number buried deep on a single page, or maybe if I squint just right, I’ll find your email address. Don’t make me work so hard. If it takes me more than 3 seconds to spot your contact info, I may go somewhere else.

4. Do you actually respond to that contact form?

True story. I actually clipped a coupon from a flyer mailed to our house. How old school is that? It was for a chiropractor–my back has been killing me–so it was great timing. I went to their web site and they actually had their hours listed on the site (that could be a bonus tip), so I called them. Guess what, the office was closed. So, I filled out their contact form on their page. It has been over a week and I have still not heard back from them. That is not uncommon. I once emailed a construction company and did not hear back for 2 months!! If you’re going to have a contact form on your web site, please make sure it actually goes to someone that will respond.

5. Can I pull your site up on my phone?

Just about every business should make sure their web site is “mobile compatible” but that is even more important for local businesses. I am much more likely to be “out and about” when I decide to look up your web site. Maybe I came from Yelp, or perhaps I drove by your business earlier in the day. Either way, I am now about to go to your web site from my Android, iPhone or other smart device. How does your site look? Can I quickly get all of the above information? If your web site is due for a redesign, I must insist you make sure that you build it to be responsive in its design.

These are the five fundamentals that I see local businesses failing at all the time. Just one of these points-of-failure can lead to a bad first impression–a bad “first reputation.” What else would you add?