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when individuals used a hashtag within their tweet, engagement can increase as much as 100%; brands could get an increase of 50%. The reason for this is because a hashtag immediately expands the reach of your tweet beyond just those who follow you, to reach anyone interested in that hashtag phrase or keyword.

Yes, Google+ was supporting hashtags before Facebook, but now those hashtags are appearing on the right-hand side of Google’s search results page. Yes, that same area on the search page you would normally have to pay for to get placement.

Google is playing nice with the other networks too—well, at least Twitter and Facebook. Those sites get a link that takes the visitor directly to the search pages on each respective site. Instagram, Vine, Tumblr and Pinterest will have to wait their turn

Not Registering Your Site With Bing

Missing “alt” Tags and Bad File Names

Not Taking Advantage of Google Authorship

Quuu is a simple platform to help put your content curation on autopilot, working seamlessly with Buffer to bring you the most relevant content.

use Narrow to build a targeted Twitter following. Just enter your keywords and targeted hashtags, and Narrow will identify a relevant audience for you to start building your following.

Cyfe is an all-in-one marketing dashboard of sorts that helps you zero in on what’s working and what isn’t. It’s a great analytical tool for social media management that lets you pulled detailed reports on Google Analytics, AdWords campaigns, SEO, competitive searches and even brand mentions on the web. It’s a real-time tracking tool to help you monitor and manage your KPIs.

Google is launching a new “Store Visits” metric in AdWords, designed to use your customers’ location to determine whether they’ve visited your stores, restaurants, and hotels after clicking on an ad.

“…most mobile research leads to a purchase, just not on the smartphone.”

“In a March 2014 survey conducted by Nielsen for xAd and Telmetrics, between 70% and 80% of US smartphone or tablet users said they had completed or would soon complete a purchase related to their smartphone search. The study also found that more than 40% of consumers considered a smartphone or tablet their most important media resource for a purchase decision.”

Facebook will round up your friends’ posts and photos from a particular place, like Manhattan’s famed Dominique Ansel Bakery, so you can see what they liked (the cronut, obviously) and what they didn’t. Place tips will also include information from the business page, like hours of operation, events, and menu details.

To determine your location, the app will use Wi-Fi, cell networks, GPS, and Bluetooth beacons placed at particular locations (a limited number in New York City so far).

But place tips will make better use of Facebook’s data, putting information front and center rather than making you comb through search results. The network’s rollout of Bluetooth beacons is a move to watch. Apple has been distributing iBeacons since the launch of iOS 7 in 2013, and we’ve seen some interesting uses of the technology, but it hasn’t yet gone mainstream. With Facebook now on board with beacons, we might see businesses adopt them at a much quicker pace. After all, few marketing moves make businesses happier than highly targeted, location-based, actionable ads.

The company, part of Google, says it's expanding its Custom Affinity Audience offering so advertisers can target users who search for ski resorts on Google Maps or download a ski resort app, for example, and serve them with ads for winter-related gear. It also provides targeting based on real-life locations that users may have visited.

Meanwhile, YouTube says its new Director Mix software can create hundreds or thousands of different video from a single asset.

Marketers who leverage Director Mix must provide YouTube with all the building blocks of video, including voiceovers, background and copy. YouTube says it will then create "hundreds or thousands of versions to match your audience segments."

When you’re ready to write PR content, these free tools and resources can help you with the process. SEOToolSet: provides information on search activity (e.g., how popular search terms are) and the demographics of people doing the query Ubersuggest: gives suggestions of keywords you might want to add to your keyword list or article content Google Trends: shows topics trending on Google, which can help you as you brainstorm topics to write about Scribe: shares the content marketing process with an integrated, holistic approach that maximizes your return on investment.

For now, the deals will be limited to a percentage off and will only be good in store -- Target is hoping Cartwheel will serve as a traffic driver. That also allows the marketer to offer a variety of deals for groceries, which are only available in store.

part of the retailer's new digital savings program, built with Facebook and dubbed Cartwheel. The program, with the tagline "A whole new spin on saving,

faintly similar to Facebook's early commerce foray, Beacon, where users automatically shared their purchases on Facebook.

"Four out of five U.S. adults are involved in a social network," Band adds. The result: Businesses are increasingly trying to follow their customers' social networking updates. It's a logical extension of CRM, which is designed to help businesses broaden their understanding of customers' interests, needs, and concerns. Many business relationships today begin on the Internet, as customers increasingly find businesses from Google searches, Facebook fan pages, and Website visits, adds Brent Leary, a CRM and small-business technology analyst. So it makes perfect sense to track and build those relationships using cloud CRM services, especially if they offer social network monitoring.

• Highrise is a cloud CRM system that many small businesses like. Along with its CRM features, the system provides various third-party customer service applications, such as MailChimp, an e-mail marketing campaign service. Highrise offers a free plan for two users with up to 250 contacts. Beyond that ceiling, monthly plans start at $24 for up to six users.