Here is an infographic created by SingleGrain that explains everything about Google Panda in plain English:-

[Via: Single Grain - A Digital Marketing Agency]

In a recent discussion on Quora, there was a question asked “Who is the one SEO person you follow on Twitter that you would recommend to anyone?” and following names have come up from the industry experts themselves.

I would suggest that you follow everyone mentioned below, as they are sharing truly great information on their twitter accounts and would be helpful to everyone involved in SEO.

This list is growing and I’ll keep this updating as and when there will be more updates on the Quora page.

Let’s take a look at some of these trends that might just make a big impact on our lives.

The Ultrabook

Long live the PC! Yes, dear people, the PC is not dead yet, because it’s begun mutating itself. Surprised! Why. The reasoning is very simple. People are going to fall more in love with the idea of using Tablets, so it makes sense that the PC undergoes a mutation that help it mimic the best features of the tablet. Intel is the one that has coined the term Ultrabook, a term that represents a laptop that is ultra thin, ultra light and ultra powerful. The keyword as can be imagined is ULTRA. And this is not a figment of some Intel developer’s verdant imagination; many such laptops were released at the end of 2011 during the holiday season. It’s going to take some time, but all indications are that the Ultrabook is going to be next big thing on the market. There is going to be an explosion of these devices and users are going to queue up in huge numbers to get their hands on their beloved Ultrabooks. Just wait and watch!

Mobile Augmented Reality

Technology that allows users to get a virtual view of the real world has already arrived and is increasingly being used in games, location specific apps etc. But now, the whole idea of ‘augmented reality’ is going to become only cooler. Think about a scenario where you are searching for a sports shop in your neighborhood. With augmented reality, you wont just get an on-screen view of the street that you are searching the shop on, but you will also be presented with its location and its reviews right on top of the of this view. Get set for more advancement in ‘mobile augmented reality’ in 2012.  There is no doubt that more and more apps are going to integrate augmented reality in some way or another. And with most smartphones and tablets being 3G and 4G ready, and offering high definition screens, and the benefit of multi-megapixel cameras, augmented reality is going to becoming even more real.

The Economy Powered by Micro-Payments

Recession or double digit growth, whatever the state of the economy in 2012, micro-payments are going to become an important part of all the transactions happening in the world of business. More small businesses are going to open an online shop and even if they don’t, there are plenty of online merchants out there who are willing to hawk all sorts of wares, and that too without burning a deep hole in the pockets of small businesses.  Aspiring entrepreneurs are finding their feet and on different sites all over the internet, and all they have to do is host their product/s on these sites. Sell anything and everything and get paid online. Yes, I know you are going to say that this is already happening, but here’s the thing. This is all set to become a whole micro-economy in itself. Shopping has already gone mobile; imagine where it’s headed next. All this is going to lead to a surge in micro-payments.

Exhausted Social Media Enthusiasts

Is that ever going to happen! I mean, are people really going to get exhausted with the whole idea of using social media. Hmm… yes and it’s already happening. Just because, there is no let up in the number of people signing up for Facebook and Twitter doesn’t mean that the millions of users already on it, are still as enthused about using it as they were earlier. I know it’s difficult to believe, but in 2012, an increasing number of people are going to reevaluate their use of social media sites and their place in their lives. This introspection has already begun, and right now it’s still on the low end of the scale, but people are beginning to get a grip on their use of these platforms and their social interactions on them. 2012 can well be the year, when many users realize how their lives are in the stranglehold of online social interactions. These people will then try to release themselves of this stranglehold. Let’s just wait and watch.

So, here they are. Trends that might just reinvent the wheel with respect to digital technology! Some of these trends have already begun taking shape… but we will need to wait till 2013 to find out, whether any of these trends really made themselves felt or not.

The emergence of social media sites in the public consciousness has made them an important part of the internet marketing campaign of many businesses.  Companies that are highly effective communicators on social media have not only been able to reach a wide target audience but also managed to offer consistent value to their customers through continuous feedback, which allows them to keep improving their products and services.

Sites such as Facebook and Twitter offer businesses specific features that are specially configured to help them develop a powerful social media strategy. These features help them take their marketing message in many different ways to their audience. But, more than the features and the ever increasing popularity of social media sites, what will actually get businesses the kind of results that they want is by USING SOCIAL MEDIA SITES IN THE RIGHT MANNER.

When it comes to optimizing the use of social media sites, it’s important to understand that only three things work – Communication, Communication and Even Better Communication.

If you cannot communicate effectively, say goodbye to any chances of success. And effective communication on social media sites is about doing the simple things right.

So, without wasting any more time lets look at how you can communicate effectively on a social media platform.

Create an Interesting Business Profile

Nobody likes a boring profile, even if it’s a professional profile, or shall we say, especially if it’s a business profile. Remember, an interesting profile is half the battle won when it comes to communicating on social media. You might be selling the most mundane products and services, but you have all the scope in the world, to make your products and services interesting through your social media profile. Infuse the profile with your personality, the right attitude, lots of chutzpah and see it work its magic.

Network with your Target Audience

Your social media profile allows you to connect with your target audience. That’s the great part about these sites. You can choose to connect with people who are most likely to buy your products and services and who would like to connect with you too. The fact that you can select your audience by keeping in mind specific demographic parameters makes your communication much simpler.

Start Conversations

Yes, you need to start talking. You need to start sharing some information about yourself (Read business) with the people who are following you. Begin with a bang and share some interesting tidbits about your business, how it came into being, a little about yourself, and your objectives from the business etc. It’s important to note, that there is a very thin line between a conversation and a monologue on social media. Your objective is to start a dialogue, so talk about your business, but don’t forget to ask the people on your list, about what they like, their interests, preferences and a whole lot of other things.

Build a relationship

In other words, you need to keep talking. Conversations are alone not enough, what you must focus on are sustained conversations, over a long period of time. A presence on social media allows you to connect with people at a personal level, so don’t waste this chance. Make full use of it and leverage its potential to the maximum. Your objective must be to build a strong relationship with your target audience, so that they trust you enough to buy products and services from your business.

Stay Active

It’s important to remain active on each of your social media profiles. After a point of time, there is a tendency to take things easy, if the levels of communication have reached the desired levels, but it’s important that you don’t rest easy. When it comes to social media and your presence on them, it should always be “full steam ahead”, nothing more, nothing less. You need to stay active on each of your profiles and keep communicating with your audience. Concerted efforts always pay rich dividends.

Reply to Each Requests

Keep track of all the friends’ requests that are coming in. Don’t ignore anyone. Yes, there might be a case where you might be flooded with requests, but you need to reply to each one of them. By ignoring even one request, you will actually be ignoring a potential customer. You cannot afford to take that chance. Over time, as your profile gets older and you spend more time working on your profile, you will get a better idea of the kind of people who are more likely to buy your products and services. This is the time when you can consider ignoring requests.

As can be imagined, communication and effective communication at that is never easy, but social media gives you leeway to perfect it by using different strategies. The flexibility offered by social media sites is immense and you have tremendous scope to keep perfecting your communication till you develop a powerful strategy that ensures business success.

It might come across as a surprise to many people, but social networking and social phobias walk hand in hand and are a partnership made in hell. From the outside things look rosy, but dig a little deeper and the problems start pouring out. If you are addicted to being a part of and making regular use of a social networking then it’s of paramount importance that you are aware of the various dangers that are a natural occurrence of addiction to this form of social interaction.

Internet and Social Isolation and Loneliness

There is a dichotomy at work when it comes to the internet. At one end, it is a platform that helps encourage social interaction, but in the same vein it also encourages our isolation from society and prompts loneliness. It’s the kind of social phobia that the internet was supposed to act against, but it’s doing just the opposite. People are spending a large part of their waking hours in the virtual world and socializing with people whom they don’t even know. They get so absorbed in this pseudo-socializing that they ignore live social interaction and the people who really matter in their lives. The outcome is that they are disconnected from reality. People are increasingly not giving importance to physical contact that is a prerequisite of a healthy social life and long hours spent on the internet are resulting in isolating them socially.

Loneliness leads to Depression

You must have come across such statements before “I love Facebook”, “I simply can’t do without my daily dose of socializing on the Net” and so on and so forth. While there is absolutely no doubt that social networking sites have loads of benefits, it’s important to put things in perspective and not to get fooled by these statements. So if you think, you or a person you know is spending a lot of time on social networking sites, its time that you got a reality check. You are susceptible to depression and this is a fact that psychologists do not deny. Addictions to sites like Facebook, results in sleepless nights, a tendency to feeling listless if you are not on such sites and basically being disinterested in the world around you.

This is not an exaggeration. There are plenty of people out there who are being treated for depression linked to an incessant use of social networking. These are the kind of people who simply cannot stay away from their favorite social networking site for any length of time. Be it home, office, school or college, they find ways to stay connected. What they don’t realize is that too much of a good thing is also bad.

The Anxiety Problem

And if depression wasn’t enough, you also need to contend with another social networking phobia –anxiety. This condition is a direct result of obsession with the various forms of social media. The problem is that a people post quite a bit of information about themselves that can be regarded as highly sensitive and then wonder whether they have gone overboard in sharing information with people. Let’ say a person ‘A’ posts certain private information about herself regarding her views about a certain topic. She does this on good faith and as natural consequence of a vibrant process of interaction. But when the interaction is over ‘A’ stops to think a bit, anxiety can begin to rear its ugly ahead.  She begins to obsess about the post and keeps wondering whether it was right to share such information with people who she hasn’t met in real life.  This condition worsens overtime as the person cant let go of interacting through social media sites and at the same time is worried that her messages, pictures etc and everything else that she has shared with people might be used in various was against her.

It’s important to note that this is just the beginning when it comes to identifying the various phobias, problems or disorders that are being linked to excessive use of online social networking. The networking phenomenon is changing day by day and so are its risks. Most people who are addicted to these sites, don’t realize or for that matter refuse to acknowledge this fact. They are well aware of the endless time they are spending on a particular social media site, but for them it’s a way of improving their social circle; it doesn’t really matter whether it’s online. So, apart from friends and family members who they interact with in a live environment, they also connect with people who they have never met, who they are not likely to meet ever and whose profile information cannot be verified or trusted.  They begin trusting them and sharing personal information with them, which lead to many different problems.

Social phobias or problems associated with online social networking come in many different hues. Their treatment requires those suffering from these problems to limit their use of online social networking or stop it altogether. By ignoring this problem users will make themselves susceptible to even more problems.