The website has long been the forefront of online reviews for businesses, restaurants, and services. Having been around since 2004, Yelp has accumulated quite the collection of reviews and the reputation of being the “go-to” for opinions that go along with them.

From a marketing standpoint, here are the main reasons why Yelp reviews are still relevant:

1. Yelp gets around 86 million monthly visitors and showcases 36 million reviews (and counting), and those numbers don’t show any sign of slowing down.

2. Yelp reviews show up in search engines. Whether your customers love you to death or are eager to air your dirty laundry, your Yelp rating will get indexed by Google and may catch the eye of a prospective customer before some of your own content.

3. Yelp has helped pioneer the “consumer generated” movement, meaning consumers have the power to share their opinion in a highly trafficked public forum. If that doesn’t inspire the desire to provide excellent customer service, I don’t know what will.

Yelp tries to keep the reviews honest by not allowing paying advertisers or companies to delete, revise, or even reorder reviews about their brand, which may or may not influence the public’s impression of them.

This policy of not letting the businesses to edit or remove reviews is no doubt consumer-centric and business owners can find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to defend against reviews that they don’t consider fair or accurate. This fact alone makes Yelp relevant and important for businesses to acknowledge as part of their digital marketing mix and online reputation management.

Between its accessibility, consumer voice, and search engine influence, Yelp will remain relevant for some time to come.

In the best scenario, both the IT and marketing teams are working together to collectively tackle search issues.

So say Marketing is leading the effort, how do they best organize the roles and responsibilities–and know that everyone is doing their job well? Enter WooRank, a technology company based in Belgium that provides on-demand analysis of your search engine optimization status and grades your site on a 100-point scale that represents your internet marketing effectiveness at a given time.

We recently had the chance to review the search engine optimization tool and were offered the opportunity to take it for a spin for a week.

Here’s how it works: anyone can put any website to get analyzed for a free report, which allows you to add up to 3 competitors, review your top keywords, backlinks, and provides a prioritized checklist of tasks that the specific website should address.

Further recommendations are broken down by Visitors, Social Monitoring, Mobile, SEO Basics, SEO Content, SEO Links, Keywords, SEO Authority, Backlinks, Usability, Security and Technologies.

However to see your full list of recommendations and further detail in the Backlink and Keyword categories, WooRank will prompt you to register. What you get with the full version is a prioritized list of search engine tasks broken down into objective: Optimize, Convert, and Promote. As an agency, what we liked best about it is that it outlines search tasks for the appropriate department, whether it be marketing or IT.

It also allows you to create a project for the website you want to improve (1 for the Pro plan, and up to 5 for the Premium plan).

Project’s Dashbord Screenshot

The two plans are $49 per month for webmasters and $149 per month for agencies, which allows you to export the analysis into a customizable PDFs for clients – a nice feature.

As a way to evaluate where your website stands, what you need to do, and who on your team is best suited tackle the tasks that will improve your ranking, WooRank is a useful tool to add to your arsenal.

Bittersweet memories come rushing back to Garrett, and the ghosts of his past begin to haunt him. The one thing from his childhood he keeps trying to find–his long gone mutt, Brownie, seems to be what is leading him to places he doesn’t want to go, and people he never wanted to see again.

This is a brief introduction to the forthcoming novel, “The Watch Dog” by Sandy Lo.

Sandy’s personal story is inspiring. She started, Starshine Magazine, an online publication in 2001, at the age of 18.  She wrote her first novel in 2009, “Lost In You,” followed by the “Dream Catchers” series. She was the first person ever to professionally interview Taylor Swift and has received personal endorsements for her books from members of boy bands Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees. Recently, she has been seeing some tremendous momentum in book sales on Kindle — just in time for “The Watch Dog,” her 4th novel to be released on November 13th. She has been included on the “50 Writers You Should Be Reading” list by The Authors Show, and recently, both “Dream Catchers” and “Breaking The Moon” reached the Top 100 Best Selling Coming of Age novels in Amazon’s Kindle Store.

What makes this even more unique, is that Sandy relocated from NY to Nashville in order to write “The Watch Dog,” which is set in a fictional town outside of Music City. She has true dedication to her craft!

Sandy is available for interviews and copies of “The Watch Dog” are available for review.  If interested, contact leah@sinuatemedia.com.

Assets are available here.

There are a number of ways to go about realizing these benefits. Here are some organic marketing services Sinuate Media offers to achieve this:

• Integrated online marketing strategies
• Blogger strategy and outreach
• Social media strategy, execution, and management
• Online publicity for film, tv, books, new product launches
• Digital marketing advisement
• Online advertising and pay-per click management, including Facebook ads
• Custom Facebook tab design
• Video creation and syndication
• Competitive research and analysis
• Social media audits
• Research and data analysis, including Google Analytics reporting
• Email marketing strategy and management
• Search engine optimization
• Web design and development
• Social media training

If you think it may be time to explore some of these strategies, contact us for more information.

Image by jurvetson

Here is what Robert had to say about working with Leah & Sinuate Media:

I recently hired Leah to help ensure that my branding was consistent on my website and Facebook and Twitter pages. I also asked her to create a Facebook ad campaign. Leah asked many questions as she clearly wanted to get a thorough understanding of theTRAVELER – my emerging travel services counseling service. I am very pleased with the results and would not hesitate to consult with her again. March 17, 2012

The secret behind theTRAVELER is that travel counselors can actually often get their clients better rates than the common travel search engines like Kayak and Hotels.com. And, if you book through them, they will include 24/7 travel assistance while you are away on your journey–anyone who has ever lost a wallet or even just gotten lost while in a foreign locale knows that this type of service is worth its weight in gold.

We are excited to see Robert’s business grow! Good Luck to theTRAVELER!

One area of particular interest is how social media is effecting higher education — from attracting students, to reinforcing bonds with alumni. One of the most exciting aspects that I believe will cause a monumental shift in education is how universities adapt to teaching through social media. With universities such as MIT now providing course material for free online, it will be interesting to see if others will follow suit and break down their walls too. MIT’s site is definitely worth checking out — I think I’ll be checking out the Anthropology of Sound first…

Photo by duff_sf on Flickr

• Ability to access the web wherever they are
• Ability to access important information when you need it most, like directions, phone numbers, and emails
• Ability to work wherever you are
• Communicate & respond faster to phone calls, emails, & voicemails
• Increase in productivity levels for professionals (I’ve heard you can regain as much as 7 hours a week by having a smartphone)

The size of the mobile market is steadily increasing. A survey phone done by Platform A and Universal McCann shares:

• 270,000,000 wireless lines in the US alone
• 63,000,000 have mobile web access
• 1 out of 7 minutes of media consumption is through a mobile device

The numbers are huge and increasing. Expect to see more soon.

They set out with a simple question: “Throughout the life of a video, do most views occur in the first few days and weeks or are they distributed randomly over time?”

The data is clear: video viewership peaks early.

So what does this mean to video producers and marketers? It brings up a number of interesting challenges. Here are just a few that come to mind right away…

• How do we leverage videos in the early period to get the most out of the viewership?
• What type marketing initiatives should be implemented after the first 90 days to continue viewing momentum?
• What is the best time frame for releasing serial videos?
• With so much happening in the area of online video, I’m sure that many of these best practices will be forming quickly.

Photo by duff_sf on Flickr

The move is hardly surprising as MySpace has been known over the past year to be the place, as one Sinuate Media staffers said, “for musicians and models.” Traffic has been slowing on MySpace as more people have flocked to Facebook and other social sites like YouTube instead. In addition, Facebook’s cleaner look appeals to the older audience it is now attracting.

From today’s Wall Street Journal article:

The moves follow a dramatic reversal of fortunes at MySpace as Facebook last year surpassed the company as the world’s largest social networking site. In May, MySpace had 70.2 million unique visitors in the U.S., a 5% decline from a year earlier, according to comScore Inc. By comparison, Facebook’s U.S. unique visitors have nearly doubled to 70.3 million, from 35.6 million a year earlier.

Though Facebook’s growth is still going strong, MySpace has been able to keep in the running by leveraging its video section.

The site is also second to Google Inc.’s YouTube in online video traffic, according to online measurement firm comScore.

While Facebook integrates video primarily into a person’s stream, MySpace allows users to more easily search for videos on their website. With this refocusing, the question is: Is there enough room for both Facebook and MySpace to survive?

Photo by duff_sf on Flickr

What was more impressive, though, than the shiny, tiered bar graph of a hotel was the amazing speakers…Linda Kaplan Thaler of the Kaplan Thaler Group, Stedman Graham (the accomplished marketer & brand expert, and yes, Oprah’s significant other), Tory Johnson (Founder & CEO of Women for Hire, and Workplace Contributor on Good Morning America), the amazing Patricia Russell-McCloud (Professional Orator and Author of A is for Attitude), Carly Fiorina (the first women Chairperson and CEO of Hewlett-Packard), Michael Port (Author of Book Yourself Solid), Carol Gardner (Founder and CEO of Zelda Wisdom – those cute greeting cards and books of the bulldog, Zelda, dressed up in funny costumes)…and many, many other fantastic and inspirational speakers.

Executed flawlessly by Sandra Yancey, CEO of eWomenNetwork, and her staff, the conference included a Power of the Purse Silent Auction, an on-site Origins Pampering Spa (yes, there were masseurs, manicures, pedicures, and facials available with all proceeds benefiting the eWomenNetwork Foundation) and what was dubbed “An Evening of Chocolate Decadence”. Despite my love for chocolate, I opted to experience a little bit of Texas and for the first time in my life, attend a real Texas rodeo – at Resistol Arena in Mesquite, Texas. Not only did I get a chance to watch bucking bronchos and bull riding, but the evening wasn’t complete without the special events of “Mutton Bustin’” – where children under 55 pounds ride on top of a bucking sheep, and my favorite – a cowboy monkey riding on top of a dog.

While nice to experience a bit of the local flavor, I came to Dallas to learn from some very accomplished business people. Here are some quotes I heard throughout the weekend that I’d like to leave off with…

On Marketing…

• “Don’t focus on the marketing tactics, focus on building trust & creditability in your marketplace.” – Michael Port
• “Only work for clients that most inspire you, for then you will do your best work.” – Michael Port

On Success in Business…

• A change in attitude is the change from ‘Duh!’ to ‘Ahh!’” – Patricia Russell-McCloud
• Leaders don’t look for followers, they look for other leaders.” – Stedman Graham
• “Passion and curiosity are more important than intelligence.” – Tory Johnson
• “Think big, set a big vision, for they will push and propel you.” – Sandra Yancey
• “Don’t become a victim of circumstance, become a victor.” – Stedman Graham

On Balancing One’s Life…

• “If you don’t replenish, the well runs dry.” – Oprah, via an email sent to Stedman Graham to read at the conference

On Being a Women in Business…

• “Well-behaved women don’t make history.” – Patricia Russell-McCloud