On March 30, 2011, Google unveiled +1, their answer to the Facebook “like” button. Searchers who are logged into a Google account will be able to see which search results—both organic and paid ads—other Google users have +1’d.

Searchengineland’s Greg Sterling explains how +1 works with paid search in Google’s +1 A Potential Boon To Paid Search Marketers. In essence:

• All Google search ads will display the +1
• Clicks on the +1 button do not count as paid clicks
• Advertisers can opt out
• A +1 button will be available for publishers to use on websites

+1 information will appear on ads that:

• Were +1’d
• Link to pages that were +1’d in organic search results
• Link to pages that were +1’d on the website

Google anticipates a positive response from advertisers and searchers. So far advertisers do seem to like the program.

Google apparently plans to use +1 as a factor in ranking organic search results, but let’s hope they don’t roll that out too soon. The +1 program will need a large user base before it becomes a reliable measurement of a page’s usefulness, but currently Google is severely restricting its use. Only logged-in users with a Google profile can +1, and logged-in Google account holders without a profile can see what’s been +1’d and get personalized recommendations, but cannot +1 themselves.  Everyone else can only see how many people have +1’d a listing.

Webmasters and AdWords advertisers will no doubt encourage people to +1 them relatively quickly, but getting the average Google user to fill out yet another profile could be more difficult, and is likely to limit the program’s usefulness at least in the short term.

Pittsburgh personal injury lawyers with Dattilo & Associates, P.C. have assisted the CaseDetails editorial team in identifying topics of importance to readers of this blog.

Social media, and Facebook in particular, have become important ingredients in many brands’ marketing mix. They are also also particularly effective tools for connecting with the online Latino community.

In a Clickz article titled “Facebook: The Latino Way” Gustavo Razzetti reports that more than half of Latinos visit Facebook once a week or more often, and they spend more time there than non-Latinos. But for marketers looking to build their online brand with Latinos, it pays to remember that culture and community are especially important to Latinos.

Hispanics, whether foreign-born or U.S.-born, maintain a solid connection to their roots. The most successful marketers tap that sense of community to really connect with the Latino consumer. They also recognize that the Latino community is not homogeneous, and Hispanics on Facebook might be:

• Foreign-born and preferring to consume media in Spanish
• Foreign-born and bilingual
• U.S.-born and bilingual, often preferring their media in English
• U.S.-born, speaking and reading predominantly or exclusively English

The Latino Facebook campaigns from brands like Pantene and ene.be.a—the NBA rebranded to appeal to Latinos—understand these differences as well as the similarities within the community. And they are successful because of it. Instead of just translating content into Spanish, they listen to their fans. For example, the video highlight clips on the ene.be.a page are in English, because that’s how the fans prefer it. Law firms wanting to target the Hispanic community should be aware of these differences when running a Facebook advertising campaign or setting up a Facebook page.

These successful campaigns suggest that Latinos on Facebook want:

• A conversation: But not about your brand. They’d like information useful to them and will be loyal to a brand that provides it.
• To be heard: Fans are loyal to brands that listen and respond.
• Passion: They want to connect with brands, information and activities that really matter to them.

In the end, brands that truly understand the Latino consumer will have the most successful Facebook campaigns.

Tampa real estate attorneys with Westchase Law P.A. contributed resources to the creation of this article.

You might not think of the typical technology geek as a Latino, but maybe you should. Latinos are leading the way in the digital marketplace, and that has wide-ranging implications for the U.S. business landscape.

Says Giovanni Rodriguez in his Clickz article “The New Digital Divide: Latinos on Top“: “Latinos are more receptive to online advertising, more open to new technology, more open to social media engagement, and more open to buying new technology devices.”

The Interactive Advertising Bureau reports in “U.S. Latinos Online: a driving force” that as of 2010, there were 30 million Latinos online, representing nearly 60 percent of the Hispanic population. By 2014, those numbers will have grown to 39 million Hispanics online, or 70 percent of all Hispanics. This represents 32 percent growth, a rate four times faster than that of non-Hispanic whites.

New Jersey divorce lawyer Adinolfi & Goldstein, P.A. contributed resources to the writing of this article.

Based on a survey from Terra Networks, compared to non-Hispanics, Hispanics are more likely to:

• Respond to targeted ads
• Enjoy video ads
• Visit a store as a result of seeing an online ad
• Seek out and research new technology options

Latinos also spend more online than non-Latinos do.

Based on this information, Latinos online are no longer a niche market, they are the market. So marketers might want to take note, reevaluate their strategies and devote a larger portion of their digital marketing budgets to the Latino market.

Law firms interested in targeting the Hispanic population, or getting business in a predominantly Latino community, can use this research to determine where to spend their marketing money. Online advertising and video would be a smart move.

The Latino online market is a marketer’s dream. Latinos are:

• Early adopters. They are the individuals you want to target with your new products.
• Influencers. As early adopters, they are in a position to spread the word to other market segments, and their social media activities show they like to share.
• Potential partners. Being more likely than other groups to interact with digital ads, Latinos are also in a unique position to help marketers improve those ads to make them more appealing to a wider audience.

Latinos not only lead the way in today’s digital marketplace, they’re likely to help shape the future of digital marketing, too.

Latinos have embraced Twitter as a place to gather and organize, making it a good tool for law firms, marketers, and those wishing to target the Hispanic population. The hashtag is the key to successfully reaching Latinos on Twitter.

“Latinos not only index higher on Twitter than any other ethnic group,” reports Giovanni Rodriguez in his Clickz article “Latinos in #Twitterlandia, “but also self-index higher: that is, we tend to self-identify, self-organize, and self-categorize more than other folks.”

Twitter’s hashtag makes it easier to search for groups of related tweets and to find people tweeting on a subject of interest. You can search for tweets on a particular topic, or you can follow tagged conversations in real time.

But skillful use of this tool to connect with the Latino Twitter community requires recognizing a few things. For Latinos:

• Hashtags are about people who share a common interest. The people are the important element, not so much the subject. A successful marketer becomes part of the group.
• The hashtag denotes a long-term conversation. Unlike most Twitter activity, which flares and then disappears in what’s called a Twitter storm, Latino conversations continue indefinitely. Marketers also need to make a commitment to remain part of the conversation, not just drop in and then disappear.
• Hashtags can make things happen in the real world. Twitter gives groups of like-minded people a platform where they can organize and then take action. If you’re using one of these tags, it helps to share the goal of the other users.

Whether they’re weighing in on immigration (#immigration), Hispanic marketing (#hispanicize) or life in general (#latism, #latino or #hispanic), Latinos have formed a vibrant community within Twitter. You can join these digital neighborhoods, using the appropriate hashtags and honest conversation to reach the Latinos gathered there.

Washington D.C. injury lawyers at The Law Offices of Jay S. Weiss, P.C. have contributed resources for the development of this content.

If you’re looking to improve site traffic and pull in customers to your firm, harnessing traffic from local search for mobile may be the key.

According to Greg Sterling’s article “Google’s Eric Schmidt: ‘2011 All About Mobile,’” Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said that Google will be putting a heavy focus on local mobile search in 2011.

Why focus on mobile?

Google reports that mobile search volume is up 130% year-over-year. People have access to the Internet anytime, anywhere. They’re using their phones to get the information they need when they need it.

How can this help with local search?

An increasing amount of mobile search is local. In fact, in another article “Microsoft: 53 Percent of Mobile Searches Have Local Intent,” Sterling states that one in three Google mobile queries and 53% of Bing mobile queries are local. People are using their phones to find products and services in their area.

How does this apply to law firms?

People are searching for everything from their phones. The woman who wants to plan her will might be researching estate planning attorneys on the train to work. A man whose wife was hurt in an accident might be searching for a personal injury lawyer from the hospital.

How can I get mobile keyword data?

Until recently, businesses were hesitant to jump into local mobile search campaigns. There wasn’t a way to collect data such as average CPC and competition level on mobile search, making it a bigger risk.

This all changed when Google announced a new Mobile Keyword Tool designed to help marketers develop keyword lists that better target mobile searchers. The Mobile Keyword Tool can be accessed via your Google Adwords account, in the “Advanced Options” tab.

In his article, “Why Google’s New Keyword Data May Actually Make 2011 ‘Year of Mobile Marketing,’” Brian Klais explains the new tool allows marketers to get keyword information for mobile search, which can be filtered just like the desktop search data. Klais offers a quick tutorial for the new tool in his article.

The search landscape is changing and mobile user demand will continue to grow. This is a good time to start working on a local search plan for mobile. Thanks to Google’s new tool, you now have the ability to collect the data you need to move forward with your firm’s campaign.

Keep checking in at CaseDetails.com for more information on local search for mobile, and check out our Local Search in 7 Days series.

Arizona bankruptcy lawyers of Clint W. Smith, P.C. have contributed resources for the development of this content.

Google recently announced it is devoting a team specifically to focus on Hispanic marketing, and as noted by Giovanni Rodriguez in his article “Why Latino Marketers Are so Googly-Eyed” on Clickz, the Latino digerati couldn’t be happier. Maybe this public recognition of the power of the Hispanic online market will help to end the discrepancy between the portion of the total Latino marketing spend devoted to digital—four percent—and the purchasing power represented by Latinos—more than $1 trillion.

This effort has been under way for more than a year, but the public unveiling began with Google’s announcement, in November 2010, of Mark Lopez as head of the new Google U.S. Hispanic. Hispanic Online Marketing expressed hope that having a Latino in charge of Hispanic marketing would help Google to:

• Better understand this market and its online behavior
• Recalibrate its Adwords Keyword Tool to make it easier to do keyword research for Hispanic markets
• Improve targeting of Hispanics on English-language sites

Google hasn’t completely ignored the growing Hispanic market up to now. It has partnered with Spanish-language websites like Univision and Terra for years, but these moves give greater legitimacy to what had been considered a niche market.

Latinos overwhelmingly favor the Internet over other sources for their information needs. They’re also ahead of the curve in adopting new technologies, so online marketers can’t afford to ignore this group. Now Google is aiming to help them connect with Latinos more effectively. Among other efforts, the company has created a series of YouTube™ videos, including case studies and guidance on using a variety of digital strategies for reaching the Latino market.

Google is finally listening to this market segment. It will continue to learn what works best in Latino marketing and will soon have plenty more to teach marketers. We should listen.

Phoenix automobile accident lawyers at The Law Offices of Larry H. Parker, Inc. have contributed resources for the development of this content.

The Hispanic population in the United States is growing, increasing their purchasing power and moving into new markets in ever-increasing numbers. As reported by Gustavo Razzetti in his article “The Super Bowl of Demographics” on ClickZ, the most recent U.S. census, conducted in 2010, has uncovered some interesting though not entirely unexpected demographic shifts. This suggests that you should be targeting Latinos with your marketing efforts. The preliminary census data show a U.S. population that has increased by about 8.8 percent since 2000, with Latinos accounting for more than half of that growth.

The preliminary census data show a U.S. population that has increased by about 8.8 percent since 2000, with Latinos accounting for more than half of that growth. The Hispanic population also:

• Is expected to show nearly 30 percent overall growth when final numbers are released
• Is growing at more than 30 percent in traditional Hispanic-designated market areas (DMAs)
• Shows growth approaching and even exceeding 100 percent in some non-traditional DMAs

Clearly, Latinos are an expanding demographic that marketers cannot afford to ignore or marginalize as a niche market.

Information and data contained in this post gathered in association with GA Workers Comp Attorneys at the Law Offices of Humberto Izquierdo, Jr., P.C.

Characteristics of the Hispanic population are also shifting:

• Fewer live in the top 10 DMAs
• U.S.-born Latinos are driving population growth in traditionally Hispanic DMAs
• Foreign-born Latinos are settling in non-traditional DMAs
• The percentage of Hispanic households with incomes over $50,000 has more than doubled since 1990, meaning more purchasing power

Even with these changes, Latinos hold to their cultural traditions. They:

• Speak Spanish at home
• Live in multi-generational households
• Are proud of their heritage
• Consider family and community to be very important

Marketers across the U.S., not just those in traditional Hispanic DMAs, should be investigating ways to appeal to all Latinos, from those born here to those newly arrived. This fastest-growing U.S. market segment is the driving force behind general market growth, and the effort to target Latinos with your marketing is a worthwhile one.

In the article “You Say Law Firm, I Say Lawyer” published on Search Engine Land on September 17, 2010, Mark Sprague outlines some interesting research showing the importance of targeting the right variant of a keyword phrase to attract the most appropriate lead for your legal practice.

Using the example of “lawyer” versus “law firm,” Mr. Sprague shows that the searchers’ intent is different depending on which version of the term they are using.

Searchers using the term “law firm” are more likely to be seeking general legal information, information on a specific law firm, or information on job opportunities. A relatively small percentage of those using the phrase “law firm” as part of their search query are looking for a certain type of lawyer (criminal, for example).

Contrast that to those searches conducted with “lawyer” as part of the query. Like the “law firm” searches, the purpose of most of the “lawyer” searches seems to be gathering information, seeking advice, or asking legal questions. The similarities end there, however. People using “lawyer” as part of their search query are most apt to be looking for a specific type of lawyer (family, medical, divorce), or a referral to a certain type of lawyer. They are also looking to find a law firm or lawyer in terms of value (free, best, top, etc.) or looking for one in a specific geographic area (Memphis car accident lawyer). Also popular with “lawyer” searches are those looking for business tools or software.

Another product of Mr. Sprague’s research was finding out that people search using the term “attorney” far more than “lawyer.” He recommends using both within your website copy, with “attorney” being the dominant term.

Mr. Sprague summarizes his research by stating that targeting the term “law firm” is best when recruiting new legal talent and strengthening your firm’s name branding. To bring in leads around your area of practice, target keyword phrases with “lawyer” in them.

“Understanding the legal search behavior by category,” writes Mr. Sprague, “allows you to develop custom landing pages to target specific user intent. Users are more apt to stay at your website if their first impression is an exact match for their intent /search phrase.” To paraphrase: if you create a page that speaks to the searchers “pain point” (or what led them to search for information on a specific topic) you are much more likely to have that searcher become a customer. Understanding the “why” behind search terms will help you transform your website into a lead generation machine.