We thought this was interesting. The national survey conducted by Cision and Don Bates of The George Washington University’s Master’s Degree Program in Strategic Public Relations found that 89% of journalists are using blogs, 65% are using Social Networking Sites, and 52% are using Microblogging Sites to find newsworthy content. Reliability, however, is one of the biggest concerns with these online sources. Read the full report.

Have you wondered why some of your blogs get a lot of readers and some fall short? With all the information out there on the internet, your blog title and email subject line are more important than ever. Here are some tips that have been proven effective when it comes to titles:

1. “How to” titles clearly present solutions to common problems. Also, when you conduct keyword research, you will find that “how to x, y,z” ranks better in the search engines

2. “5 Ways” Blog Titles: Research shows that when a title contains a number it gets more attention. What’s also interesting- odd numbers are more effective than even numbers. People want to know right away what your blog contains and if it is worth their time to read it.

3. The Worst Way to/ Mistakes to avoid titles: people want to know the mistakes they should avoid so that they can succeed faster.

4. Questions that pique curiosity

5. Powerful words that get readers:

“I really enjoyed the Webinar. It was very informative and well done” – Susan Black-Beth, CFE, Director of Franchising at Super Wash, Inc.

In the first in the series titled, Localized Online Marketing: Winning Over the “Locals”, Elements’ CEO and online marketing expert, Jeremy LaDuque, teaches how to create a local presence for every franchise location in order to improve local search engine rankings, reduce pay-per-click advertising, and ensure brand consistency. Webinar will take place on Friday, February 19, 2010 at 10:00 AM PST. http://elementslocal.com/register

There are 10 Billion unique searches done each month on various search engines and it’s estimated that over 57% of those are for local businesses. Google alone has over a Half Billion unique Local Searches per month. The bottom line is that over 50% of people find what they want through local search.

Online Local Marketing
For most businesses the majority of their customers are local, especially if you are a brick and mortar business, a local service provider or a restaurant. Even with the internet the majority of purchases are still made within 30 miles of home. So it is critical to be found for as many pertinent local searches as possible.
What this means is you want to be found under as many combinations of words as you can, locally. For example, you want to come up in search engines for both “San Jose CA Plumber” as well as “Bay Area Plumber”. The more keywords that relate to your local area the better.

The Challenge for Franchise Marketers
Franchise systems have the particular challenge of showing up local because it’s difficult to have unique websites for each location. Typical solutions franchises implement include such things are micropages (http://franchisename.com/franchisee.html), sub-domains (http://franchisee.franchisename.com) and local websites (http://franchiseename.com).

A branded local website, such as http://pdromaha.com for a Paul Davis Restoration franchise in Omaha, NE, can deliver significant local search impact. The image below shows the results for both Maps and Organic search that a branded local website can deliver.

Elements, Inc, an Online Marketing Agency and creators of an innovative platform, Elementslocal™ designed specifically for franchises, announced today a definitive agreement under which Elements, Inc. will acquire Tewkit, a provider in online marketing solutions for franchises.

This new acquisition of Georgia-based Tewkit will further increase Elements’ representation in the East Coast, while providing a powerful platform for one of the most complete solutions for Pay-Per-Click, Search Engine Optimization, SMS and email and Social Media marketing for franchises.

“We searched for months for the company that would meet our client’s needs for Search Engine Optimization and Social Media marketing. Out of all the companies we looked at Elements was the only one that provided the right solution of autonomous web sites, e-marketing and SMS services and understood the needs of the franchise community”, Stated Mr. Wally Cawthon, CEO and owner of Tewkit.com. “The combined resources will provide our customers a broader geographic footprint as well as significantly increase our offerings.”

“We are excited to have Mr. Cawthon join Elements as our VP of sales”, commented Jeremy LaDuque, CEO and leading expert in online marketing. “Wally has over 25 years of experience working with businesses developing strategies for achieving significant growth and profitability. His intuitive knowledge of the marketplace coupled with an accomplished ability to provide successful solutions for his clients makes us confident that this will be an excellent amalgamation for all”.