Solar Power Systems Increase Community Resilience

Today, solar power systems provide a highly effective way for communities to improve their chances for being better able to function in the case of potential widespread emergencies.

Communities must adapt to the many changing conditions and threats that can occur in the event of an emergency or natural disaster. Solar energy and renewable resources are key components to increasing both community adaptability and resilience.

Reduce Reliance on Fossil Fuels

Eventually, hydrocarbon fuels will become scarce, causing prices to skyrocket. It is only a matter of time before the country faces another fuel crisis. By adopting solar power systems, communities can protect themselves against future price volatility in the fossil fuel market.

Using solar energy to supplement or replace power from the electrical grid can reduce a community’s reliance on the unpredictable costs and business practices of utility companies. It can also lower energy costs substantially, which helps reduce future economic uncertainty.

Photovoltaic technology provides energy security, as local solar development ensures a reliable source of power, no matter what fuel crisis may arise.

Be Prepared for Emergencies

When a tornado, earthquake, flood or other natural disaster or emergency situation occurs, communities must be able to respond quickly with appropriate recovery efforts.

Lighting and communications are essential in the event of an emergency, as is power for critical operations. Solar power systems can provide electricity wherever and whenever it is needed.

Highway message signs and advisory radios powered by the sun can be used to convey important information. Photovoltaic vehicle laminates and portable solar generators can prepare communities to handle the effects of emergency or disaster situations.

Create Power Resilient Critical Facilities

Storms and other extreme weather events can knock the power out for days at a time.

Although hospitals and other critical facilities may have generators, the rest of the community can be left without energy. In addition, traditional generator power depends on the availability of fuel. Once the fuel supplies are gone, so is the electricity, leaving emergency shelters and mass care points without reliable sources of power.

Communities can use solar power to create critical facilities capable of meeting the public’s needs during and after an emergency situation. Medical centers and fire and police stations must be adaptable, functional and able to provide services throughout any crisis event.

Installing solar energy systems at these locations and at designated shelter areas will help ensure that emergency services are always able to respond to any disruptive event in the community.

Adopting solar power to address a growing community’s developing needs is of particular importance in lower-income areas, according to many experts. As PV power is renewable and cost-effective, solar energy can be used to bridge the gap between the poor and the well-off, helping to relieve more vulnerable populations from added suffering from the damaging aftereffects of a natural disaster or emergency situation.

Every community must address the matter of resilience now, to be adequately prepared for the future. Contact an experienced alternative energy expert in your area to learn more about how solar power systems can help to meet the changing needs of your community.

Online Marketing News: Death Of A Directory, Are Social Ads As Effective?, Search Getting Smarter

Google Reveals Black Friday In-Store Traffic Data to Help Improve Focus of Online Ads [Infographic] – Google has created a new infographic which looks at in-store traffic patterns over the holiday season, using anonymized Location History records. The stats offer some great insight and highlight where offline metrics are headed – and how they can be used to better target and focus online marketing content. Google

Snapchat Launches Story Explorer, A Swipeable Way To Get Different Visual Perspectives – With a quick swipe up, Snapchat users can now view a different angle on specific stories for a more robust story experience. Marketing Land

Study: Brands Finding Social Ads as Effective as Traditional Advertising – It appears the tide is changing. According to a recent study by IZEA, 52 percent of companies surveyed have a sponsored social budget and they find social ads to be in the top three most effective marketing investments they’ve made. SocialTimes

The Yahoo Directory Is Finally Absolutely Dead – We knew it was coming: the Yahoo Directory is now officially offline. Going to dir.yahoo.com now redirects you to aabacosmallbusiness.com. Search Engine Land

Facebook’s Audience Network: 80% of Impressions Now Native – Facebook offered another rare peek into the performance of its Audience Network, saying that 6 percent of all time spent on mobile applications is spent on apps running Audience Network. Facebook

Google Analytics Adds Calculated Metrics – New tool allows the creation of custom metrics that are calculated from traditional metrics, such as Revenue Per User and more. Marketing Land

Report: Social Media Platforms Are Becoming Too Complicated – There is power in simplicity — at least that’s the premise behind the Siegel+Gale simplicity index. The study uses survey data from more than 12,000 consumers in eight countries about the perceived simplicity or complexity of their interactions with more than 500 brands, and why simplicity pays off. SocialTimes

Google’s Natural Language Search Gets Smarter – Google is now smarter at understanding queries that include superlatives and times, as well as more complicated questions. Search Engine Land

Third-Party Apps Losing Access to Instagram’s Feed – Instagram is overhauling its platform for developers, and one of its changes is the elimination of the feed application-programming interface, which allows third-party apps to access its feed. Instagram

Google Updates The Search Quality Rating Guidelines – In 2013, we published our human rating guidelines to provide transparency on how Google works and to help webmasters understand what Google looks for in web pages. Since that time, a lot has changed: notably, more people have smartphones than ever before and more searches are done on mobile devices today than on computers. Here are the updated guidelines. Google

Google Announces New Advertising Support For AMP Pages – Fast-loading pages may also mean fast-loading ads, with advertising platform support for AMP that’s been announced. Marketing Land

Google To Penalize Sites Using Deceptive Mobile Traffic Networks – Google tells us they are actively working on detecting and penalizing sneaky mobile traffic networks. Search Engine Land

From our Online Marketing Community:

In response to Want to Add More Participation to You Content? Follow These 5 Keys to Success [Guide], Tom Southern said, “Great ideas Ashley, thanks for sharing. I love the Halloween-theme content marketing pics. They’re great. I can see these ideas working well on Pinterest, Facebook and other image strong platforms, as well as blogs. Thanks for the ideas and inspiration. You’ve got me thinking.”

What were the top online and digital marketing news stories for you this week?

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Infographic: Google

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5 of the Best Tools to Track and Measure Your Domain’s Social Impact

5 of the Best Tools to Track and Measure Your Domain’s Social Impact written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Photo Credit: Unsplash, via Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

No matter what type of business you own, it is definitely in your best interests to not only have a website but to also take the time to track your domain’s social impact. After all, a website alone no longer provides a strong enough Internet presence to push your site toward the top of Google’s search engine ranking. Additionally, without a positive and big social impact, you will end up missing out on a large percentage of your potential customers.

The best place to start is by selecting a domain name that is going to be easy to remember and spell, which is also highly descriptive of your business. In other words, if you have a law firm in Chicago, you might want to consider having ChicagoLaw as at least one of your domain names. Next, it is important to put certain key tools in place to help you ensure that you are getting the most out of your potential social impact.

1. Analytics

 Image by Yoel Ben-Avraham, via Flickr   

 Google Analytics are well-known and loved by website owners of all types because they can sync up with Google AdWords, they provide a lot of information for free and they can be linked into many enterprise software platforms that offer more robust tools. Analytics will give you a good snapshot of how many of your site’s visitors started on Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus, and this is a big piece of the social impact puzzle. Keep in mind that Google determines your site’s influential rating and search engine ranking in part by the links between your social media pages and website.

2. Tracking Your Social Media Popularity

Image permission by Nadja Shiller, Searchmetrics

Analytics will show you how many people visit your site after seeing a link on social media, but this is only one piece of the puzzle. Enterprise software such as the Searchmetrics Suite is able to truly capture the impact that your efforts are having on your company’s social media presence. Searchmetrics analyzes the performance of each social media site and provides useful tweaks for improving visibility, monitoring brand perception and optimizing your overall cross-network performance.

3. Increasing Your Overall Influence

Image by See-ming Lee, via Flickr   

As previously mentioned, Google ties your social media popularity into your domain’s overall influence score. So how can you boost this score without spending a lot of time and money? The answer is simple: utilize Klout to see real-time updates on your level of influence. Additionally, Klout suggests sharable content that is well-written and should be of great interest to the people within your social network. This is a good way to get your followers to share your content, which in turn will boost the total number of people who see your company’s name.

4. Discover Who is Talking About Your Company

Social Mention screenshot via Google search

Being able to track social mentions gives you a huge advantage. Placing an emphasis on this will give the ability to see how many people are engaged by your product or service, and you will have the opportunity to respond in a timelier manner to positive and negative comments. Instead of having someone spend a significant amount of time Googling your business name to find the latest posts, you can use Social Mention to see everything in one place. This tool will also tell you the overall strength, sentiment, passion and reach of all of the social posts that mention your company.

5. Determine How Impactful Your Twitter Accounts Are

It is common for businesses to run multiple Twitter accounts, but this makes it difficult to truly track their impact on your domain. TwitterCounter is a tool that takes care of this problem, and it also makes it easy to determine if your tweets are having the desired impact. An extra feature of this tool is that you can connect more easily with followers who have a high level of social media influence in order to more easily spread the word about your brand.

As you can see, there are many ways to track your domain’s overall social media influence. Fortunately, the five options listed above offer a nice combination of features, and they can even give you necessary information that will help you increase the power of your social media reach.

Holly Chavez is a content creator and owner of a small online business. She turns to tools that track her domain’s social impact for meaningful statistics for her social media marketing. She also uses them as a part of the fundamental resources needed in order to push her website’s presence to the top of Google’s search engine rankings.

Are Customer Reviews Promoting Your E-Business Like They Should?

Like it or not, customer reviews are a fact of life — and their impact on your business is huge. Columnist Jeremy Smith explains how you can use this to your advantage to promote your brand.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

How You Can Boost Your Internal Culture of Content Marketing and Other Content Marketing News

Hi there and welcome back to The Friday Five - where we do the curating for you on a wide array of topics. That's right kids, every Friday we showcase five articles that we think have relevance to you, the modern marketer. The articles will cover any one of the following topics:

- Mobile marketing

- Social media marketing

- Cross-channel marketing

- Content marketing

- Marketing automation

- Data

This Week's Friday Five: Content Marketing

8 Ways To Boost Your Internal Culture Of Content Marketing

One of the biggest success factors for content marketing doesn’t have a thing to do with the actual content you publish. Instead, it involves the inner workings of your organization: your people, processes and priorities. Your culture.

Your culture will facilitate successful and consistent content production, bringing your strategy to life. Without the right people in place, the inspired vision from your leaders and the best tools to help you meet your goals, your content efforts will inevitably fall flat.

Read the full story on Marketing Land.

The Role of Content Marketing Is Not Just About Creating New Content But Leveraging What’s Out There

We all aim to share engaging content to our target audiences. Content that will not only be seen by the vast majority of our contacts, but also content that they will want to engage with and share to their own audiences as well. A mistake that is too often made is believing that you should only be sharing your own content. Here’s why.

Read the full story on Business 2 Community.

3 Reasons Why Content Marketing Is the 'Only Marketing Left'

The great Seth Godin once said that "content marketing is the only marketing left.” What Seth meant, however, is that marketers should be creating content that their audience cares about -- not just re-purposed advertisements.

For business owners though, they still may not understand the value that quality content could bring to the table. In fact, content marketing is an essential part of today’s marketing strategies for each and every business. And that beings by regularly updating your business’s blog or websites.

Read the full story on Entrepreneur.

Five Strategies for Onboarding an Effective Content Marketing Team

Content marketing is a long-term initiative with all the necessary ingredients of a successful investment. It takes time to yield returns, and is driven by the need to achieve a positive ROI. While there may be a lot of discussion on strategies for making content effective, there is hardly any concern shown on how to onboard content writers and marketers so that the content succeeds and the investment goals are met. Here are some tips to get your content wizards ready and effective in no time.

Read the full story on Mar Tech Advisor.

For UK Content Marketers, Social Is for Amplification

According to a Content Marketing Association (CMA) survey of marketers located primarily in the UK, there’s little question of social media’s most powerful role in the content marketing equation. Which social service is best, however, is up for debate.

When asked about the primary purpose of social media in content marketing, 57% of respondents said it was best for amplification. Another 21% believed it was better for building a fan base, but no other response garnered more than 6% of answers.

Read the full story on eMarketer.

Want tips from leading content marketers and thinkers? Of course you do. Download the Modern Marketing Essentials Guide to Content Marketing and get tips and a lot more like how to develop a balanced content marketing plan to support your most significant business objectives.

The TopRank Marketing Team Gives Thanks

Before you dig into the turkey, mashed potatoes and my personal favorite, stuffing, the team at TopRank Marketing would like to take a moment to give thanks.

In the word cloud above, you get a glimpse into what many of our team members are thankful for. We would also like to thank you our readers for consuming and sharing the content that we work hard to create. Also, a huge thanks to our awesome clients for entrusting us with their digital marketing strategy.

In addition to asking our team members what they are thankful for personally, I also wanted to shine a light on who has inspired them or they are thankful for on our own team, below are some of their responses:

Alexis Hall – Director of Client Accounts

I am thankful for the opportunity to work with all of TopRank Marketing’s awesome clients. Everyday I get the opportunity to work with super smart marketers at great brands on a variety of really exciting campaigns.

Amie Krone – Operations Manager

I’m thankful to have a team willing to always go above and beyond and help one another and our clients out no matter what is needed. I am thankful for the ability to learn and grow every day. There is always something new and challenging at TopRank Marketing which I find exciting.

Ashley Zeckman – Director of Agency Marketing

What a loaded (baked potato) question! In my career, I have never worked with a team like the one at TopRank Marketing. I am constantly surrounded by some of the smartest people that I’ve ever encountered and count myself lucky to be able to collaborate with them on a daily basis. Additionally, there are a few people that I would like to personally thank:

• Alexis Hall: Watching the way that you interact with and service clients, you know this is what you were born to do.
• Emily Paulson: Your energy and creativity has been inspiring.
• Evan Prokop: Each time I meet with you, I learn something new.
• Jolina Pettice: Seeing the quantity of quality work that you consistently manage is magical.
• Josh Nite: Your can-do attitude and amazing way with words has made you an incredibly awesome team member to collaborate with.
• Lee Odden: Thank you for the effort and time you have put into teaching me how to be a better marketer, and constantly raising the bar on what it is that we do.

Ben Brausen – Social Media Lead

I’m thankful for the opportunity to work with awesome clients and the chance to stay on top of the ever changing world of social media. Exploring new opportunities across the digital marketing realm is always interesting and a great learning experience.

Caitlin Burgess – Content Marketing Lead

I am incredibly thankful for my wonderful account managers Leila De La Fuente, Emily Bachelor, and Alexis Hall. They’re all thoughtful, helpful and positive, making it a joy to come to work every day.

Chelsey Wentz – Content Marketing Lead

I am extremely thankful for everyone that I have worked with in my first few months at TopRank Marketing. I knew I would enjoy the spirit of this team just based on my first few trainings with Shaya Clark. I have had the pleasure of working with many of my co-workers on a daily basis on multiple client projects, but have truly appreciated Emily Paulson’s upbeat attitude, zest for learning and natural ability to help others learn around her.

Debbie Friez – Social Media Lead

I am so thankful I have the opportunity to learn every day at TopRank Marketing. I work with smart, fun people who are open to sharing their incredible knowledge with me and our clients. I love how Sue Misukanis makes me laugh and pushes me to be better every day.

Douglas Fehlen – Content Marketing Lead

I appreciate all of the talented, dedicated people here who I get to learn from every single day. I’m especially thankful to Susan Misukanis, whose passion for great content is inspiring and whose generous guidance makes me a better marketer. I’m also grateful for the chance to see visionary Lee Odden continually re-set the bar for marketing mastery.

Emily Bacheller – SEO Lead

I am thankful for Alexis who always asks me what challenges I’m facing and offers me actionable advice to overcome obstacles. Meetings with Alexis leave me feeling positive and help me proceed with confidence!

Emily Paulson – Content Marketing Manager

One of the many things I’m thankful for at TopRank Marketing is the people. They’re smart, funny, and kind. I’m especially grateful to learn from our Vice President, Jolina Pettice. Not only is she super likeable, but she’s also a marketing badass. A kitchen filled with endless snacks doesn’t hurt, either.

Evan Prokop – Digital Marketing Manager

I’m most thankful for our fantastic book of clients. Throughout the time I’ve been with TopRank Marketing, one of my favorite aspects of the job has been getting to dive in to each client’s industry, target audience and unique offerings (because that’s an essential prerequisite to being able to provide effective consulting). Each one presents a unique set of challenges, learning opportunities and the chance to get a little bit better at my job. The fact that I get to ‘sharpen the saw’ while helping them to meet their digital marketing objectives is a win-win in my book.

Jesse Pickrain – Content Marketing Manager

I’m thankful for the entire TopRank Marketing team. That may seem like a cheesy answer, but it’s the truth. When you work in an environment that fosters learning and compassion, making clients happy is second nature.

Jolina Pettice – Vice President

I am very thankful for both the clients, and incredible team members that I get to work with each day. It’s so energizing to be around talented people that genuinely care about driving results!

Josh Nite – Content Marketing Lead

The “garage band” team – Debbie, Emily P., Chelsey, Joel and Douglas. We have great camaraderie back here. Everyone helps each other, we can take a minute to chat about our personal lives, and we can always share a laugh or two to brighten our days.

Amie and Shaya, who work behind the scenes to give us a great employee experience and build our corporate culture.

Lee and Sue, who have a clear vision for the company and aren’t stingy with sharing it with us.

Jolina, Jesse, and Knute, who make sure I know what I’m doing now, what I should do next, and who have helped me immeasurably in my personal career development.

Ashley, who keeps the company running in a number of arcane ways, makes the TopRank Marketing blog rule, and keeps inviting me to collaborate on cool stuff.

Evan, Kevin, and Julia, who are always willing to share their crazy techie knowledge.

The whole team. Everyone is supportive, positive, and generous with praise.

Julia Ramos – SEO Copywriter

I’m really grateful for everyone I work with. I especially appreciate Leila who is easy to work with, has great listening skills, and who enables collaboration across job functions. I also appreciate Kevin who’s passion for SEO allows me to approach him with new ideas knowing he’ll want to listen and who’s always willing to help out and bounce ideas around with in order to create better results.

Knute Sands – Account Manager

JOLINA! I can not say enough about how helpful and awesome she is. She tackles so many projects, people and tasks head on – and all with a cheery bright smile!

Lee Odden – CEO

I am eternally thankful for the opportunity to work with such a passionate, dedicated, proactive and professional group of marketers at TopRank Marketing. From our Content and Creative team to our Social Media team to our Search Marketing and Analytics team to our Account Management team – we have one of the most talented boutique agencies in the country and for that I am immensely thankful.

I am especially thankful for the extra-ordinary contributions in leadership, operations, strategic advisory and anything/everything else that is needed from Susan and Jolina as we evolve our agency into something better and even more special into 2016.

I am thankful to Amie for undertaking the monumental task of managing our office move while continuing to handle many of her other duties as office manager. XL thankfulness goes to Shaya for her always on positive attitude and tireless recruiting efforts to grow our agency with the best talent.

I am thankful to Ashley for being teachable and eager every day to do a great job representing our agency marketing at a high level. With her efforts and success, we can attract and retain the right clients leading us to reach marketing, revenue and business goals.

We would not be growing or even have a business without our portfolio of clients. I am thankful, almost beyond words, for companies ranging from a local HVAC provider to companies like Dell, LinkedIn and the largest pharmaceutical distributor in the world for being smart or at least daring enough to hire our team. In doing so, our clients are investing in each of us to become smarter, more creative and accountable marketers empowered to deliver impact and ROI.

Leila De La Fuente – Account Manager

I’m thankful for those that I work with on a daily basis that make me laugh, work smarter and rock results for clients! Specifically Caitlin, Michael, Kevin, Julia, Emily & Alexis. I am also super thankful for the entire team’s energy – I love company meetings because I get the chance to catch up with all of our fun staff members.

Michael Bak – Paid Search Account Manager

I am extremely thankful for Leilia who is always fun to work with!  She’s sassy, a go getter and cucumber cool, even when I’m stressed. I’m also thankful for Jolina’s consistent education, collaboration and her taking the time to review my programs and work. Shaya, because she gets stuff done with a smile.

Mike Odden – Research Analyst

Lee and Sue who have given me the opportunity to be part of the TopRank Marketing team. It’s been great to watch TopRank Marketing grow and develop over the years due to the hard work of all team members.

Nick Ehrenberg – Account Manager

I am thankful for the knowledge, passion and expertise that the TopRank Marketing  team has provided for me, and for the incredible career path that has developed over the past two years. I would not be where I am now without the support and dedication provided by TopRank Marketing.

Shaya Clark – Operations Coordinator

Opportunities to learn and grow are present every day. I appreciate that I am always being challenged to tackle new projects.

Susan Misukanis – President

I’m thankful for the whole, full-on “Door of Mediocrity” busting TopRank Marketing team!

Thomas Gallus – Graphic Designer

I am very thankful for everyone that gave me the opportunity to work with this amazing team.  A special thanks to Ashley for being there for me with any question that I have had… and also for dealing with my daily mouse drumming affliction.

Thank You For Reading

I hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday weekend. I urge you to take these few days off and focus on the things that are most important in your life. If you’re keen on sharing, please tell us in the comments below what or who you’re thankful for.

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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2015. | The TopRank Marketing Team Gives Thanks | http://www.toprankblog.com

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