This is a guest post by Joel Harrison. The way content is shared today changes online marketing, putting content to the forefront of what users, companies, brands and products are about. Google+ has just won the People's Choice award for social media at The Webby Awards presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. This may come as a surprise, since Google+ isn't as popular as was first expected.

This is a guest post from Christopher Wallace. It's 2 p.m. on a Wednesday and that fully loaded triple-decker sandwich from the nearby deli has you wondering how long you can get away with catching some z's under your desk, or if that drawing-eyes-on-your-eyelids thing really works. Whether or not you plowed down a big meal or have the mid-week blues, those last few hours of the work day or week can be some of the most unproductive.

This is a guest post from Craig Robinson. Getting proper return on investment for Facebook advertising can be tricky. First, you need to create an ad that attracts clicks, which usually is the easy part, and then you need a decent percentage of the people clicking through to be potential customers. The last thing is a bit harder to control but has a huge impact on the end result. When the wrong people click, your conversion goes down and you have to pay Facebook for nothing.

This is a guest post from Brad Shorr. A lot of entrepreneurs and midsize firms say they "get a lot of web leads." However, when asked if they know the source of the leads, they have only a vague idea - and sometimes, no idea at all. How can you tell where to direct your marketing efforts if you don't know where your leads are coming from? You can't. This post will talk about how to set up lead tracking on your site, take the guesswork out of your marketing,

This is a guest post from Neil Davidson. In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of video people watch on the Internet. Any forward thinking business will do well to take note and use video to their advantage. But where do you start? Surely, video marketing must be really expensive, time consuming, and technical? Actually, none of those concerns are necessarily worth the worry. The growth of affordable,

This is a guest post from Andrew Knibbe, Marketing Manager at Flippa. Scroll down for a special offer from Flippa! Patrick Meninga's post a few weeks back mentioned his experiences in building and ultimately selling his website. Apart from a great how-to on starting up a site, it highlights the growing trend to buying websites rather than starting from scratch. Why Buy? Like Patrick,

This is a guest post by Adam Leiter. We all know that social media is about more than just putting out messages and shouting with a bullhorn. While the copyright may still legally belong to the business, today it's the audience that truly owns the brand. Social media gives them the power to take content in new directions, thus causing us to react and respond accordingly. The good news is that, as practitioners,

This is a guest post by Lisa Kalner Williams. Ever read those articles on how a business has successfully used social media to increase brand awareness and drive sales? A typical story explains the goal of the said campaign, shows screenshots of the tweets and posts used in the campaign, and lists the results of these efforts. The articles either end there or conclude with a self-congratulatory remark by a company rep.

The following is a guest post from Susan Waldes , Senior SEM Manager at PPC Associates. So you think your business is ready to get into paid advertising channels? Or are you into them already? In order to make sure you get the most out of every penny, here are the things you should think about )or should have thought about( first. Is your brand and site optimized? Meet Sally. She's not ready to buy a tablet right now,

This is a guest post from Barry Mueller. Companies always strive for ways to create brand awareness. As everyone knows, the big companies will always have an advantage in this field due to their surplus of money which forces the smaller companies to think more creatively. Just a little over a week ago, I found a way to reach 7,000 people, 5,000 of whom I reached in two days. The best part about it was that it only took five minutes of my time.

This is a guest post by Brad Shorr. Many businesses use social media to promote brand awareness, and it can be quite effective. Because social media is largely personality-driven, a savvy entrepreneur can level the playing field against much larger competitors and establish his company as a widely recognized, credible source. Unfortunately, for every social marketer who succeeds in driving brand awareness, there are ten more who drive people away from their brands.

The following is a guest post written by Patrick Meninga of Make Money With No Work . He recently built and sold his flagship website for $200,000. I want to tell you about the mindset required to create wealth on the Internet. The actual mechanics of building successful websites are actually pretty basic: you put up useful content, gain authority, build links, get readers and subscribers, and so on.

This is a guest post by Neil Davidson . Instead of requiring users to navigate, scroll, and click to access information, online video is a one-stop destination for information. It takes less time to engage the user than reading, and the user is then engaged until ready to follow an embedded call to action. In today's society, the personal connection that a brand can make with a consumer is crucial.

This is a guest post by Brad Shorr. Check out his earlier posts on How to Hire Your Social Media Marketing Partner and How to Hire Your SEO Partner . It's very difficult for small and mid-size firms to select the right interactive marketing agency " as evidenced by how often agencies get fired, and how frequently client-agency relationships subsist at a low level of productivity and mutual satisfaction.

This is a guest post by Anita Campbell. When my company, Small Business Trends, LLC, first purchased BizSugar in the summer of 2009, the best way I could describe it was as a miniature version of Digg, except that BizSugar focused soley on sharing information geared toward small and mid-sized businesses. This is still true. But as BizSugar has grown over the last couple of years, it's also become a small business networking site where business owners can discuss issues,

This is a guest post by David Rodnitzky. Having the best prices and largest selection of products means nothing on the Internet if you don't back it up with incredible customer service . Treat customers badly and you will be out of business - period! Bad customer service will get you banned from major advertising networks, skewered in organic results, and ridiculed on social networks. Here are the top ways consumers can crush your business online.

This is a guest post by Brad Shorr. Want more? See How to Hire Your SEO Partner from November. After taking the social media plunge, companies quickly discover that it is vastly more complicated and time-consuming than they thought. The normal response is, HELP! But companies must avoid a panicky response, because hiring a social media marketing )SMM( partner requires careful study. As I'll run down in a minute,

Social Search can be approached from two angles; both equally important for businesses. There's micro-searching " this includes using social media to connect and engage with people based on keyword, location, and niche. And then there's macro social search' essentially, how it's affecting search engines like Google. In this article I will give you three areas of mirco social searching to focus on, how best ot use them,

This last year Google brought a large number of algorithm changes to the table. Although these changes helped increase traffic and rankings to many large corporations such as YouTube and eBay, it hurt a large majority of small businesses. According to Search Engine Land , some domains saw a 94% loss in visibility, and others were left picking up the pieces after they lost 80% of their keyword positions. Consider this graph by Sistrix , created to describe where mahalo.

This is a guest post from James Bentham. SMS, really? As most brands and organizations now have a mobile optimized version of their website, the focus is now on encouraging users to travel to your site and interact with the brand itself in order to push increased revenue. Experienced marketers will tell you that customers are much more likely to respond to campaigns that engage them on a personal level.