The Art of Going Viral with Video ft. President Obama

This past Sunday, Feb. 15, was the deadline for people to sign up for healthcare coverage. While this is a priority for many people across the country, millennials have been elusive and have proven to be a hard demographic to appeal to with this message.

President Obama wanted everyone, especially millennials, to sign up for healthcare coverage. There are two great ways to connect with this powerful demographic: social media marketing and viral videos; so, to connect with Millennials, the President utilized those mediums, especially the video part. Obama and Buzzfeed Motion Pictures created a video to promote Healthcare.gov. 

The results that speak of the video's success are still being calculated; however, the popularity of the video is tremendous, having been watched 15 million times in its first eight hours. By the end of last night, the video surpassed 42 million views.

In the video, we see President Obama doing American-Millennial things like taking a selfie on his iPhone with a selfie-stick, blaming Obama for something (you know the sarcastic phrase, "Thanks, Obama."). However, the point of the video is hidden in his speech practice that is done in front of the mirror.

Obama is no shy person to social media, using it heavily in both Presidential campaigns and for other efforts, such as his Reddit AMA, chats with YouTube stars, and other creative projects.

Does your business need to reach a difficult demographic with its marketing? Does your business want to improve its social media presence? Then email Integraphix and our Chicago creative marketing team can help you strategize! 

YouTube is on the Radar for FOUR Startups

Is change in the air? Or, rather, on your computer screen? YouTube, the world's most popular video platform & an emerging influencer in search engine optimization rankings (it's owned by Google, hence the reason), could be challenged by four different startups.

So what are these "Davids" who are looking to take down "Goliath"?

1. Victorious. Founded by Sam Rogoway, Michael Todd, and Bing Chen, this mobile-first platform allows creators have a house for their content, including their own apps. You can also interact with other users and fans as well as show off the content. This platform makes money by having in-app purchases, e-commerce, and standard ad formats. 
2. 5by. Founded by Greg Isenberg, the mobile app recommends content to users (the content is divided by categories) due to the ratings they give on previously watched videos. Users of the app can share and chat about videos with other users, privately. The app makes money by brand sponsorships and highlighted videos. It has since been bought by Stumbleupon. 
3. Vessel. Founded by Jason Kilar and Richard Tom, former execs from Hulu. This app hosts premium shows from publishers and creators. Those who use the service get dibs on first-look content. The company makes money from subscriptions and brands can purchase 5-second pre-roll for videos. 
4. Pluto TV. Founded by Nick Grouf, Tom Ryan, and Ilya Pozin, the platform operates much like linear TV. It curates videos from many publishers and puts them into 100+ channels for viewers; viewers see their choices in an easy-to-use guide. This platform makes money from pop-up ads and interstitial videos. 

The internet changes constantly; one day, some company will be top dog and another day, a new guy on the scene is making a name for itself. This is why it is so important to be ranked on Google search results-- your website can be lost in the depths of the websites if it is not being promoted. Does you website have SEO services? 

Email Integraphix and see how our Chicago SEO company can help your site be noticed on the web. 

Who Won the Social Media Battle Between Facebook & Twitter During the Super Bowl?

The Super Bowl on Sunday night attracted record viewers and was the most mentioned Super Bowl in history. Not to mention its popularity on Twitter but it was also a huge hit with Facebook as well. According to Facebook, 65 million people engaged in conversation.

The game was a terrific background for the two social media giants as they tried to get into good relationships with marketers. Twitter has already been a terrific platform for brands who wanted to join conversations; despite having fewer users, Twitter was actually the better place to discuss the game and its infamous ads than Facebook was.

Between the two, Twitter is the more popular place for live social commentary. However, Facebook has made some progress in being a go-to place for discussions like Twitter has. Facebook features trending topics, like Twitter, and they even setup a a hub for Super Bowl conversations. Both platforms have their pros and cons.

Marketers, such as our Chicago SEO company marketing team, engage differently on Facebook than they do on Twitter. Here's a list of comparisons between the two & how they performed on Sunday night (with things related to the Super Bowl).

• Facebook had 265 million posts, comments, & likes. 
• Twitter had 36 million tweets & 2.6 billion impressions. 25 million more tweets than last year. 
• Both were buzzing with chatter when the Patriots sealed the win with the interception. Facebook had 1.36 million comments per minute. 
• Twitter had 395,000 tweets per minute talking about the interception. 
• The halftime show had 3 million tweets; Facebook had 1 million people per minute discuss the show. 
• Half the Super Bowl ads featured hashtags, Facebook was only mentioned 4 times. 
• Top 3 performing moments on Facebook were the win, halftime show, and the 3rd quarter touchdown for the Seahawks to take the lead. 
• Top 3 performing tweets on Twitter were the final interception, the victory, and the final moments of the halftime show. 

Social media marketing is a big deal for days and moments like the Super Bowl. It is a big topic for people to comment on and give their input, don't let your brand miss out. Does your brand need great digital marketing? Then email Integraphix and see how our Chicago SEO company can help your business capitalize on big moments, or, simply have a presence on the web! 

Is It Time to Update Your Site's Content

When was the last time you changed your site's content? Even if it was just a page or two's worth? If you cannot answer this question, or without a long pause to think, then it is likely time to produce fresh content for your site.

Search engines and humans alike prefer to see fresh content vs. the same, stagnant content on your site. A site that sits with the same content on it for a year or more is a site that will struggle to truly succeed at search engine optimization.

Refresh the existing content now and then and make sure to generate new content a couple times a month, such as a blog, news, updates, etc. This is why an internal blog is great for SEO, search engines like to see that fresh content. Also, you can use this opportunity for images and more substance for search engine crawlers to index and grab when someone does an internet search related to your business.

Do you need this done, have questions, or require internet marketing services? Then contact Integraphix, a Chicago SEO company.

Notice Anything Different About Google's Logo on MLK Jr. Day?

If you have gone on Google today, then you should have noticed something special going on with its logo, it is a special edition logo in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Today, you will find the latest, and one of the coolest, Google Doodles for the holiday. It is Martin Luther King Jr. arm-in-arm with some fellow civil rights activists with an American flag and silhouettes in the background.

The idea that Google creates special page designs for holidays is nothing new; we even see them create special logos for birthdays, movements, etc. It is smart digital marketing from the search engine giant.

The doodle, or logo, was designed by Ekua Holmes, who has a unique style for her art. Her art features news clippings, photos, intriguing colors that all contribute to making powerful messages in her art.

Does your brand need to have impressive presence online? Then try online marketing. If you want to be found on Google search results, then consider search engine marketing such as search engine optimization.

Contact Integraphix to find out how we can help your business get seen on the internet.

Twitter to Launch Autoplay Video Feature, a Win for Social Media Advertising

Social media giant will be giving us a late Christmas gift this year, however, the wait was worth it: autoplay video! This is a great day for social media marketing as well as search engine optimization since both are often tied together.

The last year, Twitter has been working out how it would construct its built-in video system, if it decided to implement it. This new feature would give Twitter users and digital marketers a way to create great footage within the app. If you attended the CES 2015, then you likely saw this being shown. 

In a previous blog (seen here), we talked about this being in Twitter's plans and the possibility that the videos would play when users scrolled over them. This is the setup that Facebook has and it has shown to be a lucrative and efficient way for some good ROI that both consumers and brands love.

Video has proven that it is great for social sharing and is being embraced by many companies, including search giants Yahoo & Google, as well as social media giants Facebook, Snapchat, and Pinterest.

Twitter is not newbie to the video scene, they own Vine and have implemented other cool formats like GIF support in recent years. Twitter's new video feature will operate differently than what we see elsewhere. 

How will it be different?

• 6 seconds to impress- Viewers will get a 6 second preview of the video, enticing them to click and watch the full thing. However, this is not limited to the first 6 seconds of the video, so digital marketing agencies must choose their 6 seconds wisely. 
• No sound at the start- The autoplay will not have sound until the viewer clicks to watch the rest of the video (we see this with Facebook's autoplay feature). Of course, this means that advertisers will not pay until consumers click. 
• There will be a good length of time- Videos will be given the option to run up to 10 minutes. Of course, any one of our Chicago SEO specialists will tell you that the average user only watches for about 30 seconds. 

Does your business want to have a better presence on social media? Then contact Integraphix-- a Chicago SEO firm with extensive, proven success with social media. We can help you build videos that will delight the Twittersphere. 

How to Fit Press Releases into Your SEO Strategy in 2015

Press releases have been a staple in the world of promoting a business for many years. When the Google Panda and Google Penguin updates happened in 2011 and 2012, they wanted t

o deliver better quality content and connections with that had frequent content updates; press releases were a perfect way to embrace that new feature of Google's search algorithms.

Press releases are still beneficial for search engine optimization in 2015, despite the constant evolution of the press release. One change to note is that releases do not carry the big authoritative weight that they once did, you can thank the businesses that used them solely for self-promotion for that. In order for them to be part of your 2015 plan for digital marketing, you have to understand the whole scope of things.

The benefits of press releases

• The natural link building- It can be a hard task to get the quality inbound links you need for good SEO. They can take a lot of time and can lead you to being banned from search engines if you are not careful! A press release is a quicker way to accomplish this; however, you have to be able to write quality content. Submitting press releases can help connect you with hundreds of news sources, which can lead to many links. 
• High-quality sources- These are authoritative sources, good ones. A lot of the sites your release will be published on should be high-quality. You will not be getting backlinks from random blogs or discussion forums. 
• Great keyword and brand recognition- As long as your press releases are written in-house, you will have the ability to connect your business with keywords that are helpful and effective. If you are a hotdog establishment, then you can publish press releases that feature your brand name and hotdog related keywords. 
• Referral traffic. Organic traffic is wonderful but referral traffic is delightful as well. As long as your traffic is quality, you're doing well. Yes, quantity is big too. 
• Reputation management. This is crucial if you want to defend your business from attacks, especially false ones. 

Is your company looking for more exposure online? Contact Integraphix about SEO services for your website or blog. We have flexible packages to match your budget. 

What SEOs and Social Marketers Can Learn from NASA

NASA teaches us a lot of stuff, such as the effects of various science experiments in space and other really cool & interesting phenomenon; however, they have also taught us "creatives" a thing or two about our own domain.

The days leading up to a campaign can be petrifying. You wait for the time when everything is going as you planned it to; social media marketing posts all the way up to online ads, everything has to be perfect and your results are ideal. The launch is set to happen.

This launch is what NASA infamously refers to as "liftoff", our Chicago SEO team says "infamous" because the line, "We have lift off" is known by 99.99999999% of humans on the planet, probably. As creatives, we are always wanting to believe that our work is so necessary to planet survival that the work has to be done right now and that the world is watching as it happens. This level of pressure can make it so we don't recall the tips we've learned along the way.

Marketers are not the only people to understand this pressure, remember, NASA has the task of getting a huge rocket ship into space. They want people to know the level of pressure they have.

Now and then, NASA invites social media influencers to a program called NASA Social, in which the influencers attend a launch and document the whole thing. Here are some of the things that can be learned from seeing the launch of a spaceship, such as Orion.

1. Make your brand loyalists and all stakeholders a priority. Yes, brand loyalists are under the "stakeholder" umbrella. Now, with each step of the launch, NASA Social gives attendees the same level of exposure as the press. They can meet with NASA leaders and go inside building where the spacecraft is being built, etc. By giving the social influencers this level of access, NASA is going above and beyond for their brand fans. 
2. Get help when needed. There are few journeys one can make solo. However, the journey of going into space and leaving the atmosphere is not one of those journeys. NASA calls in lots of help, including the U.S. Navy and its own employees. As humans, we like to try and do things ourselves instead of calling in help. 
3. If conditions are not optimal, wait. Do you ever see a space launch during a hurricane? No. We don't even see them happen during a thunderstorm. Why? Well, these less than optimal conditions are not going to increase the chances of a successful launch, which are already hard to get. NASA waits as long as it needs to for perfect conditions to execute the launch. 
4. Test and retest. NASA runs multiple tests on things they do, especially when it comes to launches. They never say, "Well, this will be the first launch for this aircraft. We've never seen what it can do or tested for any flaws. But we have some eager astronauts and we'd hate to say 'No'". By the time the launch arrives, they know everything because the tests have informed them of the necessary info. Can mistakes still happen? Yes. 
5. Think big. NASA has shown several interviews about Orion, the ship destined for Mars. Why Mars? Well, we've been to the Moon and the ISS plenty of times, Mars has yet to be conquered by anything more than a satellite (We see you, Rover). 

NASA has a lot of intelligence behind it, much like a successful marketing campaign. 

As a Chicago SEO company, we strive to know the latest and best techniques and help clients gain exposure and heightened success. Do you want to hire a creative marketing agency that knows what will work for your company because it looks at you as unique and not cookie-cutter? Then talk to Integraphix! 

Local SEO in 2015: Maps & Review Sites are Key

When you want to do great internet marketing and search engine optimization, for your business, you have to look at optimizing and promotion beyond your website. In regards to a local business, this means considering maps and review sites.

If you only do internal SEO, then you are missing out on some serious promotion for your site. When Google released the Pigeon update back in July 2014, it put more emphasis on local SEO. Directory/review sites such as Yelp now have the possibility of ranking above a business's website.

Do a search for "bakery in [your local city]". You will have to go past map listings and then, likely some Yelp or other review site listings, THEN you will find some websites.

So what can you do to rank well? 

Set up your Google My Business account. List your site and make sure all information is 100% correct. You can create a listing or claim ownership of an existing one. This is a free service and will help a lot.

Utilize Yelp. Yelp gets a lot of flack for "fake reviews. Any review site will (and does) have fake reviews on the site. Guaranteed. However, it is a great place to have your business listed and get good reviews because it can really help with Google rankings. Make sure to claim your business on Yelp.

Optimize any and all listings. Claim your listings. Verify information. Add photos, hours of operation, contact info, vanity URL, and other important information. Our Chicago SEO company makes sure this is done for all clients because it helps so much.

Gather some reviews and testimonials. Have people give you reviews (don't buy them or ask your family members) but when you have a customer, ask them to fill out a review. Also, ask around for some testimonials. You won't want to ask for reviews on sites, as that is often frowned upon.

Engage with people. On social media and review sites, talk to people. Respond to them. The more talking going on and the more traffic, the better it is for your site. This also shows people that your site is human-owned and run, not by robots. As a social media marketing firm, we can tell you that there is a massive difference in popularity and success of companies's online presence between those that are robotic vs. human.

Does your business need to be noticed on the web? Contact Integraphix and see how we can help you! Talk with our digital marketing team about search engine marketing and social media.

5 SEO Trends to Look Forward to in 2015

If you are hearing that "SEO is dead" then you are wrong, my amigo. While search engine optimization is constantly changing, it is far from dead. SEO is a beautiful mix of SEO techniques, content marketing, and social media marketing. 

In the coming year, we can expect to see several things happen, when it comes to SEO. 

1. Better semantic search. When Google released its Hummingbird update in September of 2013, it was a rebuild of the algorithm to favor semantic search. Semantic search attempts to understand why someone searches for something via analyzing possible meanings and intent. Hummingbird looks at each word of the query to hopefully grasp the whole meaning. 
1. This means more conversational style queries will be made. Instead of searching solely for, "Chicago SEO firm", we might search for, "Who is the best SEO firm in Chicago?" This also means more long tail keywords. So, instead of keywords that are only one or two words, keywords will be more in the range of 3-6 words. 
2. LSI keywords- LSI keywords are "latent semantic indexing" keywords, which means that they utilize synonyms and plurals of your main keywords.
2. SEO for mobile search.  According to Google, half of searches made by someone on a smartphone are made with the intent of making an in-store purchase. However, not every mobile search has local intent:
1. 17 percent of mobile searches are in the store but complete the sale online. 
2. 44 percent research online & complete the sale online. 
3. Over 75 percent happen at home or work. 
4. 17 percent are done while in motion. 
5. 81 percent of smartphone owners research products on their smartphones. 
6. 50 percent of smartphone owners purchase via their phones. 
7. 66 percent of all the time in 2014 that was spend with online retail was done so via smartphones instead of computers. 
1. Mobile search is growing; by the end of 2015, mobile search is expected to be more powerful than computer. Everyone has a personal computer right in their pocket, these days. 
1. 43 percent of US adults use their phones & tablets as primary search tools. 
2. 46 percent of adults don't use their laptops or desktops for pre-purchase research. 
3. 33 percent of online shoppers used their phones & tablets for the whole purchase process. 
4. 58 percent of US adults researched prices of prices of a product while in-store for that item. 
3. Social signals will lose power. While retweets, shares, and +1s have power in rankings, their power is not what we likely believe them to be. The confusion here is that there is a difference between correlation and causation. While a high ranking social media profile may have lots of these social signals, it may be something on the page (something deeper) that is causing the page to rank well. Some studies have shown that when a company gains 100 Google+ followers, they tend to increase in rankings by 14 percent. 
1. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are high authority sites, this means that your company's profile on these sites can outrank your website. As a Chicago SEO firm, we have seen this actually happen, many times. 
4. Earned links will be even more important. Earned links are in contrast to paid links. Earned links are going out and placing your links places, writing blogs, and social media. Paid links are a sure-fire way to get your site penalized. 
1. This means that content marketing is still king. 
5. Getting brand mentions and citations. A citation is mentioning your business name, address, and number on a website that is not your own website. There are three types of citations to recognize:
1. Local- Local businesses such as dentists, attorneys, restaurants  being listed in places like internet Yellow Pages, Yelp, Google Business, Google+ , etc. 
2. Industry- Being listed with industry-specific citations. 
3. Niche- Get brand mentions and citations on industry websites that appeal to their target markets. 

To be successful in local SEO and SEO as a whole, an SEO company needs to be able to see ahead. If your business wants to be found on the internet, then hire an SEO company that knows what to look for. Talk with Integraphix.