Easily increase your search engine visibility

By Tim Priebe on March 30, 2009 at 6:30 am in Search Engine Optimization, Social Networking

Google, LinkedIn and FacebookFor a long time, search engine optimization has been a feat that required a certain level of experience and technical skills. And it still is. Fortunately for the average business owner and freelancer, you can increase your search engine visibility using just social networking websites. Since they’re the most effective, I’ll specifically talk about Facebook and LinkedIn.

Make sure that you actually go through a complete your profile on both of the websites. On LinkedIn, put mostly professional information, with just a tiny bit of personal mixed in there. On Facebook, it should be a healthy mix of personal and business.

On both, use some form of your actual name for your username. On LinkedIn specifically, make sure you take a look at your profile and customize your Public Profile address. It will generally start out as something generic like www.linkedin.com/pub/12/62a/4a3. Simply click edit next to the link, and you can change it to something like www.linkedin.com/in/yourname

LinkedIn Vanity URL

Tim Priebe results on GoogleOnce you have those social networking websites filled out, make sure you link to your website!

Naturally, you should do similar things on MySpace, Plaxo and Twitter. But Facebook and LinkedIn have been proven to have a good effect on your search engine rankings, and should definitely be taken care of first thing.

Need proof that this works? Just Google my name, Tim Priebe, and you’ll see both Facebook and LinkedIn on page one out of 80,000+ results.

One of the many reasons Facebook is more popular than MySpace…

By Tim Priebe on March 25, 2009 at 10:07 pm in Social Networking

… is because Facebook does not pull this kind of junk (click for large version):

picture-16

Business Card Special

By Tim Priebe on March 23, 2009 at 8:14 pm in Design, General

We’re running a great business card special this week. Although normally $250, this week only, you can get business card design from T&S for just $200.

Just contact us for more details!

For fun, vote on your favorite business card we’ve designed from the options listed below. Not that whichever of our designers loses will be teased mercilessly.

Which of the above business cards do you like the best?

View Results

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A frustrating screen for Twitter users…

By Tim Priebe on March 17, 2009 at 6:21 pm in Social Networking

Now that we’ve become power Twitter users here around T&S, we’re unfortunately seeing more and more of this screen:

Twitter over capacity

A frustrating screen people who frequently use Twitter know all too well.

Get free social networking training

By Tim Priebe on March 9, 2009 at 6:11 pm in General, Workshops

Twitter BirdBlog, tweet or otherwise e-promote our social networking class and be entered to win a full day of the workshops. This includes the basic Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace workshops, as well as the advanced workshop. Those are all on April 2nd.

We also have workshops scheduled this Thursday, March 12th, but the free workshops will be April 2nd.

Just post something similar to the excerpts below either today (March 9th) or tomorrow (March 10th), and email us a link at info@tandswebdesign.com letting us know.

Twitter (or as your status on social networking sites)

Business owners in OKC- Social networking workshops where you learn in front of actual computers! http://tandsgo.com/social March 12 & Apr 2

Blog, etc.

If you’re a business owner in the Oklahoma City area, there are some upcoming social networking workshops that may be useful for you. They’re showing small business owners how to use Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn without spending tons of time or money.

Best of all, you’re sitting in front of an actual computer while learning. So you’re actually doing it while there, and can ask for help if you need it.

They’re currently showing workshops on March 12th and April 2nd. Check out more at their website: http://tandsgo.com/social

Of course, you don’t have to use these exact exceprts. Feel free to use your own words, and you can even mention that you’re only blogging it to see if you can win. Thanks all, and good luck!

Getting LinkedIn recommendations

By Tim Priebe on March 7, 2009 at 3:25 pm in How-To, Social Networking

LinkedIn logoAre you wanting to get more (or any) recommendations on your LinkedIn account? Here’s how…

  1. Add contacts for the places you’ve worked at in the past. As many as you can find who would even remotely recognize your name.
  2. Once they’ve approved, go through that list of contacts and recommend everyone you feel comfortable recommending.
  3. Before sending your individual recommendations, Click on edit in the the [view / edit] links just above the Send button.
  4. Add a message thanking them for their hard work, and that you’d love a recommendation as well.

That’s it! Be honest and complimentary, and many of the people you recommend will recommend you right back.

It works! I have more recommendations than the average LinkedIn user. Check my public profile.