Content writing has been shown to be one of the most important parts of a business? SEO strategy. It can also be one of the most challenging, with only external link building being seen as more difficult. However, it is worth the effort.</p> <p>Brafton and others have reported that content marketing has an incredible potential to generate inbound links organically. This is especially true in light of recent trends: journalists that are more legitimate and well-followed bloggers are turning to websites for their information and creating links back to the information in their articles.</p> <p>?Content creation stands apart in the cluster of tactics, both for its difficulty and its effectiveness. Good content creates buzz and attracts links. For this reason, marketers who commit to the effort required in creating quality content can improve their SEO positions,? explains Brafton?s report.</p> <p>What makes content writing difficult is the issue of quality? Google?s recent release of Panda is a direct result of too many websites using low quality content heavily sprinkled with trending topics and keywords and phrases to try to waylay users on their way to informative sites. So to make content writing worthwhile, it must focus on quality.</p> <p>However, quality does not always come easily. According to a recent Brafton survey, over 73% of marketers find it difficult to create original content. 73% also found it difficult to find the time to devote to creating original content. Most of those surveyed say the answer is outsourcing; with 14% of those asked saying they spend up to 100% of their SEO budget on hiring experts to do it for them.

With Google?s continued efforts to tweak Panda, its latest algorithm designed to minimise the impact of spam and low-quality content in search results, more sites are reporting recovery.</p> <p>Some in the industry speculate that the tweaks are automatic updates, as opposed to Google?s performing manual updates as they have done in the past. The reason for this is that it feels as if the updates are happening in real time, which is a strong indicator of automation. In a thread on the WebmasterWorld forum, one member writes:</p> <p>?I?m quite sure since two sites have completely recovered. One last week on Friday and the second one today which means +400% for each site.? Another adds, ?I am also seeing traffic bouncing back from 4 Aug 2011 on one of my client?s site which was hit by panda 2.3. Now the traffic is almost equal to pre-panda 2.3 period.?</p> <p>It is important to note that Google makes about 500 changes every year; and some of the effects we are seeing may not be specifically Panda-related, yet still provide positive (or negative) impact upon a site.</p> <p>The Panda algorithm, its continuous tweaks, and the other changes Google makes throughout the year are all designed to improve the user search experience. Legitimate news feeds, articles, content, etc. are all given priority over poor content and spam using keywords and trends to drive traffic to low-quality sites, thus interfering with the user?s ability to find legitimate and relevant information quickly.<br />

Social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook have traditionally relied upon ?friend of a friend? methodology to encourage connections between it users. However, that seems to be changing. According to research from the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, location-based services are now serving as a way that people are connecting.</p> <p>?Essentially this is a way in which we can predict how people will make new friends,? says researcher Salvatore Scellato. He also indicated that, ?We know that we are likely to become friends with ?friends of friends?, but what we find is there are specific places which foster the creation of new friendships and that they have specific characteristics. For our research, we analysed the location-based social network Gowalla to see how users created social connections over a period of four months. We discovered that about 30% of all new social links appear among users that check-in to the same places.?</p> <p>According to experts, when making connections with new people, it is the massive numbers of users that serves as one of the largest hurdles to overcome. While the large numbers may be great from a business perspective, those same numbers can be a deterrent when it comes to recommending friends. This is where location comes in. According to Scellato, it is the properties of the places in which we interact that determine our social ties, with locations involving social and leisure activities, such as clubs, gyms, etc. generating more social links than commercial ones.<br />

In December of 2009, what Google fondly referred to as ?real-time? search made its debut. Featuring up-to-the-minute updates from sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo! Answers, people were able to get a full news feed and information as it was being presented. This was especially useful during times when news was breaking; people in riot zones could share information and photos as it was happening. However, the service disappeared in July, after the search engine giant failed to negotiate an agreement with Twitter for access to their data.</p> <p>?The value the product was providing was not enough,? said Google?s Amit Singhal during a search panel event held in Mountain View, California (as reported by Mashable). However, he went on to say that all was not lost; Google was looking at other solutions.</p> <p>Now with Google+ up and running, Google has promised to bring back real-time search, drawing from a pool of what is now 25 million G+ users. How it will handle privacy issues regarding the information is unknown. Unfortunately, the desire to provide real-time information as it is presented and a social user?s desire for privacy can be at opposing purposes. Yet it could be that with the ability to publish to the Public, G+ users will be able to present information to the wider internet audience; thus allowing Google to use it in real-time search.</p> <p>While there is no specific date provided for the return of real-time search, Google+ users seem glad to know it is coming. Real-time search was one Google feature that practically everyone loved.<br />

There are many items to juggle when it comes to staying on top as a business promoting itself on the internet. One of those things is SEO ? search engine optimisation. To help with that, a group of SEO consultants have provided their top 10 pieces of advice on how to maximise SEO strategy:</p> <p>10. Invest in social networking ? develop brand awareness and bring in new business by interacting with fans, friends, followers, and circles.</p> <p>9. Set doable goals ? aim for better conversion rates, higher ranked keywords, a bit more traffic.</p> <p>8. Use content to widen the net through links ? link building is an important part of any SEO campaign. However, do not force it. Links should be organic; developed as a by-product of quality content.</p> <p>7. Pay attention to competitors ? what keywords are they using?; where are they getting links from?</p> <p>6. Invest in your domain name ? use a keyword and create something memorable.</p> <p>5. Do not forget the mobile market ? local search through smartphones is the future.</p> <p>4. Create a quality blog ? a well-maintained and engaging blog can attract traffic.</p> <p>3. Optimise meta tags using relevant keywords.</p> <p>2. Make use of long tail keywords ?longer key phrases make up a large portion of search so make sure to take them into account.</p> <p>1. Remember that content writing is king ? content should be unique, relevant, authoritative, and dynamic; never contrived, never written solely for keywords? sake.</p> <p>The web is constantly evolving and to succeed we must remain relevant. SEO can help us do that, but only when we use it wisely.<br />

The British government has released a report called ?The Government Response to the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth? outlining significant changes to UK copyright law. This includes the introduction of new copyright exceptions as well as orphan works reforms.</p> <p>Surprisingly, in the report, the government states that ?copyright currently over-regulates to the detriment of the UK? and that CD and possibly DVD copying for personal use should be made legal; even if the CD has a EULA sticker saying that it should not be.</p> <p>In addition to taking the view that ?the widest possible exceptions to copyright within the existing EU framework are likely to be beneficial to the UK?, the report provides clear pledges of what the government intends not to do, including not bringing forward the somewhat controversial site blocking provisions found in last year?s revision of the Digital Economy Act.</p> <p>Perhaps of most importance within the report is the pledge to expand copyright exceptions. Whereas the USA has a fair use policy in place, the UK has no such thing. While the report does not actually use the term ?fair use?, it does promote the legality of what is, in essence, the same thing.</p> <p>While the report is highly significant in that it represents an unexpected change of tone, the one thing it seems to have missed out on is addressing the ability for copyright holders to compel ISPs to block certain sites seen as infringing upon copyright, such as in the recent case where BT was taken to court and forced to block the file sharing site USwitch.com.<br /> The government report is available in full online at: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipresponse-full.pdf.

In September 2010, popular microblogging social media site Twitter began introducing a redesigned version of its home page; providing users with a second viewing pane for content such as videos, photos, profiles, and geo-location data. However, as not everyone is keen on change, they allowed users to opt to keep ?Old Twitter? instead. Now, that option is being removed. Twitter has announced that they will be upgrading everyone to New Twitter this week.</p> <p>The idea behind the redesign was to make the home page more valuable. In the past, a large number of Twitter users opted for third-party applications through which they viewed their Twitter stream. These third party options provided more features and allowed users to tailor their viewing according to preferences. With the new design, Twitter hoped to make the home page more desirable to tweet from, offering users a way to interact with their timeline on the left hand side of their screen while viewing other preferred content on the right hand side.</p> <p>As part of their design efforts for New Twitter, the company made deals with 16 different media companies, including YouTube, Vimeo, TwitPic, Flickr and others ? enabling users to see content from these different sites in the new viewing pane.</p> <p>In addition to changing the user interface, New Twitter has also added promoted tweets ? paid for marketing messages from business partners placed near the top of a user?s timeline. Users should only see these promoted tweets once, and only if they are following the brand or organisation behind the promoted tweet.<br />

A new bill passed in the US state of Missouri prohibits direct social networking interaction between teachers and their students. The bill, which goes into effect on August 28th 2011, is part of an initiative to ?more clearly define teacher-student boundaries?.</p> <p>Known as the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act (Senate Bill 54), the new regulation is intended to protect students from potential sexual misconduct at school, but expands to address the many ways students and teachers can now interact ? email, chat rooms, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. </p> <p>According to a spokesperson for Nixa School District, the bill still has a few grey areas. For one, the bill does not prohibit all teacher-student interaction via social networking; just direct interaction. This means that a teacher can create a public Facebook page on which to interact with students; however, they cannot include them as friends on their personal pages.</p> <p>Those for the law include Amy Hestir, the 40-year-old-woman whose ordeal at the age of 13 serves as inspiration. Opposition to the regulation feels that Senate Bill 54 implies guilt and infringes upon teachers? rights.</p> <p>In recent years, there have been ongoing issues between schools and teachers and how, when, and where the latter are able to use social media in relation to their status as teachers and their interactions outside of school walls with their students. Earlier this year, a US teacher was suspended for having discussed a student on her personal blog.<br />

Social media helped spread the news of the Norway attacks within minutes. Social media also helped spread a lot of mis-information in the same amount of time; illustrating the beauty and the dangers of gathering information in today?s digital world.</p> <p>I happened to be on line with Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter all open in the moments before the Oslo bombing took place. A post saying something to the effect that a bomb had just gone off in the building next door appeared in my stream. In the moments after that post appeared, I offered my friend an ?are you okay?? and waited for professional news sources to catch up with me. Across social media, other people were doing the same. Within minutes, BBC News and others had articles published. From there, the floodgates of information opened.<br /> While the events in Norway highlight the importance and prevalent role social content plays in spreading news and information, it also highlights the dangers. Within hours of the tragedy, bloggers and even some mainstream news sources were attributing the attacks to Islam when, in fact, the perpetrator was a Christian who felt that Christianity was being marginalised in Europe.</p> <p>"Tragic day for Norway, shameful day for journalism," was how Brown University historian Shiva Balaghi characterised the coverage. "In this 24/7 news cycle, driven even more mad by terror experts who conduct research using Google and tweet a mile a minute, journalists should exercise caution.?

Google+, the latest platform in social networking, is said to have reached 20 million unique visitors in just three weeks. This includes five million from the US alone.<br /> The information comes from research company ComScore, who reports that the 20 million mark was met just one week after Google CEO Larry Page announced that the new social networking site had reached ten million visitors, sharing over one billion bits of information each day.</p> <p>"It is definitely the fastest ascent to 20 million visitors that I can think of," Andrew Lipsman, ComScore's vice president of industry analysis, told the LA Times.</p> <p>Spokespersons for Google declined to confirm the figures, saying that the company does not comment on metrics released by third parties.</p> <p>Google+ is still in beta format and by invitation only, but the site should be going live at the end of this month.</p> <p>Originally thought to be a potential Facebook killer, Google+ users are finding the platform to be something more ? a kind of stopgap between Twitter and Facebook. Here, brands are discovering a better way to connect and share content with target groups, declaring G+ more intuitive than Facebook Groups and Pages. Google+ allows users to create circles; quickly and easily categorising people in a way that helps relevant conversations and content reach those interested in it without clogging others? content streams.</p> <p>While this is not Google?s first attempt at social media, it is by far the most successful. Early indicators suggest Google+ will be around for the long haul.<br />