Facebook has just announced Places, a new feature that will allow users to share their location with other Facebook users via their smartphones. A lot of questions have been raised over this new feature, so here is a helpful guide Mashable put together that explains what Places is and what it will mean for businesses, you, and your privacy.

First of all, in order to use Places you will have to have a smartphone. This feature works best on the iPhone, but if you don’t have one, you can still access Places through Facebook’s Mobile Touch Site as long as your browser supports HTML5 and geolocations. Facebook plans to release versions of Places for Android and Blackberry devices, but no official dates have been released yet.

The first time you click on the Places tab on your iPhone or your Mobile Touch device, you will be asked for permission for Facebook to know your locations. Once you accept, you will be taken to the Places interface. From here, you can share your location with friends, find where your friends are located (provided they are using Places), and discover new areas around you. You have the options to add places, check into existing places, and tag people who are with you.

In order for businesses to show up on Places, they must submit an official document such as a business license or a Better Business Bureau accreditation. Facebook also plans to launch an API so developers can incorporate this feature into their applications. Working with sites such as Yelp and Gowalla, this feature will allow third-party apps to pull information and run queries from Places’ data.

So what happens when Places goes wrong? If Places displays a wrong location, or you feel that it is infringing on your privacy, you can report this incorrect data and it will be flagged for removal. Unfortunately, this removal is not immediate, but you can immediately untag yourself from these locations.

One of the main concerns with Places is user privacy. While this feature is designed to share your location with your friends only, your checkins will automatically show up in your newsfeeds and status updates. Friends can also check you into locations without your permission. Steps to make places more secure are available; however, you just have to know where to find them. By carefully going through the various “Customize Setting” for Places, you will be able to control who sees your locations and who can tag you.

This new feature is generating a lot of hype and is sure to raise many questions. Check out the full article for more on Places.

In today’s busy online market, good branding is vital. Having a logo that is clean, eye-catching, and compelling can mean the difference between good business and no business. After all, when it comes to online marketing, your logo is the face of your business. Choosing the right logo, however, can prove difficult. A recent article by Matt Silverman on Mashable.com provides four things that should be considered when considering a new logo.

One thing to remember is that your logo is a first impression. Before consumers know anything about your company, the first thing they notice is your identity. Instantly, consumers know if they want to continue or click away. As Silverman states, “Like the clothes you’d wear to a business meeting, your logo has to say, “I’m smart, I’m savvy, and I can compete,” at first glance.”

This is especially important for small businesses because they have to compete with large, multi-national corporations. This is a great opportunity, however, for small business owners because they can adapt to an ever-changing online market much easier than a large corporation. That’s why it is so important for small businesses to stay up-to-date on current market trends.

Another thing to know when it comes to your logo is what makes a logo “sticky.”  This means that your logo will “stick” in the consumers’ minds. When they see your logo they automatically associate with your brand. Making your logo memorable can be tricky, but thinking outside of the box can help. Try to be unique. Avoid what has been done countless times, and try to create something that is specific to your business.

Read the full article for more tips on creating the perfect logo for your company.

According to a report on Fox News, Internet addresses will run out in less than one year. The Internet protocol used today, IPv4, provides about 4 billion unique IP addresses that are used to identify each computer, website, or internet-connected device. This service, which was created 30 years ago, seemed like a perfect attempt at supplying enough IP address, but today there are only about 232 million IP addresses left. This number is rapidly going down due to the boom in smartphone and web-enable devices.

When IPv4 was created, smartphone technology had not been created yet, and the idea of devices such as refrigerators needing an IP address was absurd. Today, however, almost every electronic device can connect to the Internet.

One solution to this problem is IPv6. This new IP service would provide nearly 4 billion IP address to every person in the world. Unfortunately, this service has been frowned upon by many service providers because it would require a large amount of upgrades, and some users would completely have to purchase new hardware.

Until IPv6 is release, or a new solution is created, service providers may force customers to share IP address. This could ultimately cause some services, such as Gmail and iTunes, to cease to work.

Read the full article for more.

When dealing with e-commerce sites, it can be difficult to achieve search engine optimization (SEO). This is because most e-commerce sites don’t have a lot of unique, relevant content to generate keywords. Often these sites are simply product and navigational pages with duplicate content. Without searchable content, ranking high on searches can be nearly impossible. So how do you get a higher SEO on your e-commerce sites? An article by Adam Thompson, senior partner at RYP Marketing, gives 5 simple techniques to increase your e-commerce SEO.

His first tip is to write category descriptions. On many e-commerce sites, optimization focuses on keywords from category pages. Thompson points out, however, that most category pages are mostly images and links with little to no descriptions. One way to fix this is to write descriptions or introductory copy for each category that can be displayed before or after the product listings.

Another tip for increasing keyword-targeted content is to write expert product reviews. Writing and publishing reviews that include images, video, detailed product testing and analysis, and other value-added content that shoppers might find useful is a great way to generate searchable content.

Thompson provides other tips, as well as examples of how these tips have been successful. Read the full article to see how you can increase your e-commerce SEO.

If your company is utilizing social media, odds are you have dealt with sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. You are also probably aware that managing social media can be difficult due to how many different types of social media sites exist. To avoid this challenge, many companies use their various social media sites as direct channels to reach their customers. The problem with this, however, is that you can not build a marketing strategy on the idea that people will follow you around the Internet going to every one of your sites.

According to an article on Media Post, companies need to think of social media as an interconnected web. By making your Twitter feed visible on your website, your online stores accessible through Facebook, and placing your YouTube videos everywhere, your customers will easily be able to access and navigate your business regardless of the channel.

The trick here, however, is to make sure you can maintain your authenticity. When integrating social media into your various sites, it is easy to simply automate your responses. You can have your Facebook updates post to your Twitter, your Twitter feed to your LinkedIn, and so forth. This may seem like a great idea to save time and effort, but this can get annoying for the customer.

If your followers are constantly receiving updates from your social media sites, they are more likely to simply “hide” you rather than being bombarded by messages. Media Post suggests that whenever you are tempted to automate your social media, as yourself, “What will this do to the customer experience?” Try to find a balance between automated responses and personal ones.

Check out the full article to see how you might can achieve that perfect balance.

One of the best ways for a business to capture leads is with a landing page. Done properly, a landing page can get a high number of website visitors to provide their contact information for future lead generation. Knowing how to create a successful landing page, however, can prove difficult. A recent article on Hubspot provides three tips on creating an effective landing page.

According to the article, before you create a landing page, you need to understand the idea of “call-to-action buttons.” In order to convince people to navigate to your landing page, you need a call to action message that will motivate them to learn more about your business. Once you have a compelling message to drive people to your landing page, there are a few easy things you can do to improve your page.

First, make sure your landing page matches your “call-to-action message.” People follow a link expecting to immediately find information of the topic. If they don’t recognize the information on the landing page right away, they are likely to leave.

Second, keep the required information fields to a minimum. Four essential fields exist for starting lead generation: Name, Phone Number, E-mail, and Company. If any additional information is needed, consider making it “optional.”

Third, make your landing page flexible, so it can prove useful later down the road. Keeping your landing page easy-to-change will save you valuable time and resources.

These are just a few quick tips to help you build a successful landing page. Read the full article for more information.

While social media may be the center of attention in today’s online market, the real leader in generating traffic to websites is still the search engine. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a complex topic that focuses on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but also includes paid advertising and contextual advertisements. A recent article on Open Forum provides some key tips that might help you make your website more search-optimized.

One of the first steps is to familiarize yourself with SEO. In this ever expanding online world, it is essential to stay up-to-date on what makes a website easily searchable. Another step is to grade your website. Several sites, such as Hubspot, provide website graders where you can easily see the strengths and weakness of your site.

Search engine marketing is a constant process that often requires trial-by-error and self-education. Having great content on your website is important, but making sure people can find that information is key. Read the full article for more tips on how you can make your website more SEM ready.

If you have ever used Facebook, you are well aware of the “Like” buttons. This simple feature allows users to “Like” something they read and post it directly to their Facebook page. In fact, nearly 65 million users are “Liking” things daily. This feature is incredibly popular among content creators and online marketers, and soon they will have another way to access “Likes.”

A recent article explains how MailChimp, an e-mail marketing service, will be releasing a new version of its application that will integrate “Likes” into e-mail campaigns. This means that marketers will be able to add a “Like” button directly to their e-mails. These like buttons will work exactly like they do on the web. When a subscriber clicks the “Like” button the campaign will be posted directly to their Facebook page. All the “Like” behaviors will be tracked by MailChimp and be accessible through a campaign social stats section.

This new “Like” feature will require e-mail recipients take a more social and long-lasting roll, rather than simply following a link. MailChimp is hoping this new feature will greatly enhance user engagement, especially with e-mail marketers. Read the full article for more info and a video walkthrough.

Whether it’s the Star Wars Kid, Leave Brittany Alone, or any other number of videos online, almost everyone has come in contact with a viral video. As soon as these videos hit the Internet, they amass millions of views in a very short time. While most of these videos are meant to simply make you laugh, marketers are trying to figure out how to use viral videos as a way to boost business. With sites such as YouTube, businesses have access to millions of viewers; but what is it about viral videos that make them different than all the other videos out there, and how can you make sure your video stands out?

An article by Mirna Bard offers 5 suggestions as to why some videos go viral and others don’t. She believes the key to a successful video is making sure your video is funny, uses some type of gimmick, has useful content, has an exciting title, and is no longer than 30-60 seconds.

Now these 5 elements will not guarantee that your video will go viral, but knowing what makes a video spread will help you create better content that will be shared across the Internet. Read the full article to see how video marketing might work for you.

In today’s market, you should no longer be asking yourself whether or not your business should join the social media community. The question today is: how involved does my business get in social media? Do you be conservative with your involvement, or do you let it all hang out? Knowing how open your business should be in online communities can be a real challenge, but luckily there is an answer.

A recent article provides a few pointers on deciding how open you need to be with your business. The main thing to remember is that openness in social media can vary. Just like a relationship, the key is to start out slow, and open up over time. The Community Roundtable has created a 4-stage chart that can help you decide where your company is in terms of openness in social media.

Remember, think of social media like a relationship. Put too much out there at once and you may drive business away; don’t put enough and people may be slow to notice you.