Top 7 Online Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2014 by Jayson DeMers, Contributor Forbes

Content Marketing Will be Bigger Than Ever

One of the main ways that companies are establishing authority and gaining trust with consumers is by consistently creating valuable content through a variety of channels

Social Media Marketing Will Require More Diversity

Just a few years ago, businesses were limited with regard to the social media networks they could implement into their marketing campaigns, with the biggies including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Now, it seems like new social media sites are appearing all the time. While some never really get off the ground, others like Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr and Instagram have surged in popularity

Image-Centric Content Will Rule

As consumers are hit with an increasing number of advertisements, it’s becoming more important to make content easily and quickly digestible.

Simplistic marketing messages 

One notable trend is the apparent shift in consumer preference regarding simplistic marketing messages instead of in-depth messages. When you think about some of the top brands in the world like Apple and Google, they clearly value simplicity.

Hooked from Jayson DeMers, Contributor Forbes

Essential review about social media

Facebook #hashtags can help your brand to promote online blogged by Irfan Ahmad. Social media is one of the best way and easy way to reach the people through online. Find out the above image chart to know the best social media for marketing the products or services. Irfan Ahmad point out the five features of social media that may help your brand essential.

Google introduced 360 degree image

Google  launching the 360-degree images from the Galapagos Islands. Now, you can visit the islands from anywhere you may be, and see many of the animals. They experienced on historic and groundbreaking journey. Thry sighted at San Cristobal Island, Galapagos Islands, Floreana Island. The pictures are taken with four way camera. 

Bing! a new logo is coming soon !

Now Bing have set out to do search engine differently. This evening Microsoft announced and has started to roll out a range of new features for Bing — some cosmetic, some more structural. Prominent among them is a new logo and identity, which is symbolic of Bing’s deeper integration across the Microsoft’s products and devices.

Four new ways to customize your Google Forms: sources google drive

From classroom pop quizzes to RSVPs for your family reunion, you can use Google Forms in tons of different ways -- which is why it's important to be able to customize each form to fit your needs. Starting today, you’ll be able to take advantage of four new features to create your perfect form: progress bars, data validation, embedded YouTube videos, and custom messages. 

Guide respondents through your survey with a progress bar 
Sometimes it’s helpful to give respondents a sense of how much of a survey still needs to be completed, and now you can by turning on a progress bar in your form.

Get results the way you want them with data validation
Let’s say you’re using Forms to collect sign ups for an email newsletter. With data validation, you can now ensure that the email addresses are formatted correctly, and consequently avoid those unpleasant bounce-back messages. 

To get started, create a new Text question in Forms, then click on the Data validation tab. Click the checkbox and select “Text,” then “Email address,” and voila, the survey taker will see an error message if they don’t enter an email address.

You can also set up data validation for maximum character count, numbers, zip codes, and more.

Embed YouTube videos
You can now embed a YouTube video right inside a form -- perfect if you want to get feedback or ask questions about a video.   

This works really well for quizzes in class, especially if paired with data validation and the progress bar. Embed a video and then use data validation to give hints when students enter incorrect answers, and add a progress bar so they know how far along they are in the quiz. 

You can also set up data validation for maximum character count, numbers, zip codes, and more.

Embed YouTube videos
You can now embed a YouTube video right inside a form -- perfect if you want to get feedback or ask questions about a video.   

This works really well for quizzes in class, especially if paired with data validation and the progress bar. Embed a video and then use data validation to give hints when students enter incorrect answers, and add a progress bar so they know how far along they are in the quiz. 

After you’ve switched your form to “Not accepting responses,” you can now add your own message and instructions for follow up.

Posted by Elynn Lee, Software Engineer

Best practices to achieve shared understanding in virtual communication

Hooked from The any where office about Virtual Assistant Services guideline. The six list of  best practices to achieve shared understanding in virtual communication. Here’s a favorite:

"Avoid sloppy e-mailing. A new status symbol in today’s generally more egalitarian business environment has arisen: sloppy e-mails. One provocative study found that many executives have write terse e-mails with half-sentences, bad grammar, and atrocious spelling. The underlying message is that those individuals are far too busy to be bothered with writing perfectly polished text. Unfortunately, sloppy e-mails at best require wasting time trying to decipher them, and at worse cause workplace misunderstandings and costly errors. For offenders who claim they simply don’t have time to write better emails, researcher Jaclyn Kostner doesn’t mince words: “I tell them you have to find the time; otherwise, you’re not fit for the job and somebody else should be doing it. Or maybe you need to offload some responsibilities because there’s no excuse for sending people cryptic emails.”

Importance usage of submitting your links in Directories

Directories have proven an important source for links. These links should ideally be optimized for the keywords that we want our site ranked for in the search engines. Usually directories allow the submission of just one page (generally home page), so the keywords have to be relevant to that page. Make sure that you have researched your keywords well and chosen those that are minimally competed for but adequately searched.  (Keyword research can be done using tools like KeywordDiscovery and WordTracker).

Unlike other methods of link building like reciprocal linking where you can just request the webmaster to include specific keywords in your link, with directory submissions you have to convince the editor to include the anchor text of your choice – you need to make sure of not over-stuffing the anchor text with keywords if you want to stand a chance of approval. You would also need to make sure your title is not too promotional.

It is also a smart idea to vary your anchor text as search engines have techniques to control anchor text spamming. Too many links with the same anchor text may be unacceptable, so consider a few options which you can use for different directories.

Most directories also require a description of the website. Make sure it does not read like an ad text. Include a few relevant keywords without overdoing it. Avoid exaggerated descriptive words like ‘leaders’, ‘largest’ etc. This will not only make the editor frown, they are also not required. Avoid repetition of words and exclamation marks when punctuating.

Another factor to be considered is the category you submit under. Sometimes choosing the wrong category may be the key to the rejection of your submission. The right category will define your website more appropriately and it will aid the search engine when locating a site like yours. It's important you take the time to go through the directory's category list and select the most appropriate category.

Make the best of directories by carefully submitting your links in the first place. Once your site has been accepted, it may be extremely difficult to change any of the matter submitted. So make sure that you optimize your directory submissions.

To summarize the important points:

• The links should ideally be optimized for the keywords that you want your site ranked for.
• You should have researched your keywords well and chosen those that are minimally competed for but adequately searched.
• You should vary your anchor text
• Don't overstuff the anchor text (to avoid your submission being rejected)
• Selecting the most relevant category for your site
• Don't make your title and description sound too promotional (again, to avoid your submission from being rejected)