You’ve probably been hearing a bit of buzz lately about “social search,” and how it’s going to be the biggest thing since…the last biggest thing. Does this matter for your business, or should you just ignore it?

My philosophy about social media as a business asset is pretty much the same as any other tool you might be considering. What is your measurable goal, and how does this tool help you to accomplish it? When it comes to social media, there are some simple questions you’ll want to start off by asking.

Is your product interesting to talk about?

Let’s face it. If your company sells seals and gaskets for cars, nobody is likely to get excited and tell their friends about them. If you sell a commodity product, does that mean that social media just isn’t going to do you a lick of good? Frankly, there’s a good chance that the answer is yes, but it also depends on your answer to the following question.

Are you willing to spend money to create something interesting, even if it isn’t a direct revenue producer?

In the SEO world, we call this “link bait.” The basic idea: if your primary product isn’t that interesting, talk about something that is. This can be as simple as creating a blog where you talk about industry news. It might also look like shooting a video once a  month and creating pages on your site where you embed the videos. The key to link baiting, if you’re planning to use social media, is to focus on making them worth talking about.

If you have no idea how to do any of this, start by looking at one online news site for 5 minutes each day. One site that’s easy to start with is Digg. The nice thing about reading Digg is the fact that it gives you a view of how many people “Dugg” each article. It’s a convenient vehicle for learning to put your ear to the wall and find out what people are talking about online.

Remember that social media is primarily useful for things of a “conversational” nature. It’s not, and will never be, a billboard.

You’ve probably heard this cliche before: “Your web site can sell for you 24 hours a day!” Most likely, you’ve heard this from someone who was hawking internet marketing services. Yet, if you’re a small business owner, you’ve probably noticed that after you get your web site set up, this claim doesn’t match reality. Generating sales “while you sleep” is easier said than done.

It never ceases to amaze me just how many business owners will throw common sense out the window when it comes to internet marketing. There’s just too much guesswork in most marketing plans.

Let’s take a look at search engine optimization for one example. How much money should you spend to get your home page indexed and ranked for keywords relating to your product or service?

The answer: maybe a lot, maybe a little, and maybe none. It depends on where the bottleneck is. If you haven’t read The Goal by Eli Goldratt, I highly recommend this business classic. It explains the concept of a bottleneck very effectively. Like its name suggests, the bottleneck is the single limiting factor that determines how fast you can make money.

There are four places to find a bottleneck in your online business:

1. Your product or service itself. (If your product is overpriced or just plain stinks, change that.)
2. Your fulfillment process. (Are you getting complaints about lost shipments or order mistakes?)
3. Your web site. (Are customers able to navigate your web site?)
4. The search engines. (Are your ideal prospects actively searching for you and finding your competitor instead?)

If you know that you have problems in any of the first three above areas, search engine optimization is probably not the best use of your money until you get them cleaned up. If your site just isn’t getting any traffic, you can’t really determine where the problem is until you get some. In this case, it might be worth investing in a few small PPC campaigns just to measure your conversion rates.

In any case, if you don’t know where your bottleneck is, your first priority must be to locate it.

**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers, Corry Cummings. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please send an email to janelle [dot] vadnais [at] gmail [dot] com or see our guidelines for guest posting.

It is common that a writer will stare blankly at the computer screen wracking their brain for an effective title. It can be one of the hardest things to do. A good title shows the reader what they can expect to learn by reading the related content. However, a bad title can quickly turn the most well written article or post into a piece delegated to the content bargain bin. Creating better titles should not be a daunting task.

Whether you are writing yourself, or you are using article writers, there are a handful of approaches that you can use to make sure you have good titles for your content. A good title can be the difference between gaining a new lifetime customer or reader and having a potential customer hitting the back button.

1. Keep the Title Short

Not only does Google limit displayed titles at 64 characters but readers will likely impose much harsher limits. As the average Internet reader will only read about 1/20 of your article or post, your title needs to tell them exactly what they will expect to find. There is never a reason to write a title that is more than 64 characters. If your piece is very specific, save the continuations of titles for subheads or your introductory paragraph. Remember, you have the meta description to work with if you need more space to center your piece.

Example: Wrong – A Simple Write Up on the Dangers of High Sugar Content in Food as it Relates to the Development of Children. Right – Child Development – High Sugar Content in Food

2. Keep the Title Descriptive

Nothing reduces the clarity of a title faster than word play or creativity. If your reader cannot determine exactly what your piece is about based on your title, you need to revise. Sure, a title might be humorous after the article is read. However, you never know into what context your article will be placed. A clever title to you might be an unrelated topic, or worse, offensive sentence if taken out of context. By keeping your title neat and clear, you will be able to reach a wider audience base. Few people ever avoiding reading an article because it didn’t have a catchy title.

Example: Wrong – A Magical Journey Through the World of Better Titles. Right – 4 Steps to Creating Better Titles

3. Eliminate Common Words

Search engines will summarily ignore common words like (the),(and) and (a). Strike these words from your title and replace them with items like (-) and (|). Doing so can save you some much needed characters and make titles much easier to read. If the search engines won’t find the words, there is no reason that you should include them.

Example: Wrong – The 4 Steps to Creating Better Titles. Right – 4 Steps to Creating Better Titles

4. Be Clear About Your Article

Although you should keep the title short, never sacrifice clarity for brevity. Your readers need to be able to determine exactly what they will learn about reading your post. Simply using the keyword as the title is nowhere near enough. This is especially true if you have multiple posts or articles on the same topic. If you really need that major keyword in your title, make sure you include a hyphen with more information after it.

Example: Wrong – Shoes. Right – Black Dress Shoes for Men

About the author: Corry Cummings is the owner of Content Customs, a content creation company that specializes in high quality web content writing services. He also runs a blog over at Content Customs, which is managed and written by one of the head writers of the company.