In spite of global recessions and a rapidly growing middle class in China, our consumer nation is still the world’s largest advertising market for U.S. and international companies. Yet as advanced as we are, the U.S. is not the most connected.

In Ciaran Norris’ article, “A Letter to Facebook From the Rest of the World,” he notes that while the U.S. is often the test market for new technologies such as Facebook’s geolocation service, Places, there are other countries whose connectedness would make them ideal beta testing grounds.

For instance, Facebook is now the most popular media brand in the U.K. and Sweden has a 92% internet penetration rate compared with the U.S. at 77%. Indonesia is the fourth largest market for Facebook, yet only 12% of its population is online.

As stated in Morgan Stanley’s “Mobile Internet Report,” 96% 0f Japan’s residents will have 3G mobile access this year. It is estimated that there will be more users connected to the internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within the next five years. China and India lead the world in terms of users, with over 600 million mobile subscribers in China over 300 million in India with major growth rates expected by 2014.

So while U.S. consumers purchase more than other nations and marketers will continue to test and launch products and services, it is not the only market that should be considered for product feedback. Other nations have higher mobile and internet penetrate rates and house highly active users with unique perspectives on the social media services rooted here in the U.S.

Getting users to your website is a fairly complex issue. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the most heavily researched, contested and coveted marketing disciplines because search is still where it’s at for attracting engaged users to your website.

Yet, search engines don’t offer us marketers a how-to guide on how to rank well in their engines. That’s why it is essential to glean your knowledge of SEO best practices from plenty of trusted blogs, forums and articles online as well as from consultants and employees who have experience and success in page one search rankings.

A recent SEOmoz post by Rand Fishkin disclosed an interesting forum thread between himself and eight other SEO sages on the subject of whether great content equals great rankings. Herein, I’ll attempt to sum up the expert’s thoughts on what relevance great content has in organic search rankings.

So, does great content equate into great search rankings? Great content is important because people generally want to read well-written, engaging content. But just having great content on your site doesn’t mean that you will rank well. Other factors like site architecture and inbound links are major contributors to rankings. Now, if all things are equal (site architecture, inbound link quality/number) and your competitors are content with stale or inaccurate content, your great content will motivate people to link to your site and share your information with others which will in effect, produce better rankings.

As Matt Cutts of Google is known to state: Google strives to provide the most relevant search experience. He repeatedly encourages marketers to produce great content. But for the time, great content isn’t a ranking factor!  So while it’s only logical to provide the best content you can for your users, it won’t automatically earn you a top spot.

Google and Bing are always aiming at improving relevancy,  so it is possible that over time, the better your content, the more useful your site will be for their searchers and thus, the better quality score you’ll  get from those engines as part of the total ranking equation.  Social media is one such trend that will likely affect ranking factors in the near-term: real-time tweets and updates may affect a site’s relevancy.

However, as it stands now, it gets down to a less noble conclusion: the content that is marketed the best is the content that ranks the best. Those who have the best quality and sometimes highest number of inbound links generally rank the best.

Personal branding is a very hot topic these days. The Fortune 1000s still own the term “branding” in  general but due to the internet, smartphones and social media, individuals can develop their own personal brands.

Personal branding as defined at Wikipedia states:

Personal branding is the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands (Lair, Sullivan & Cheney 2005). It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging (Lair, Sullivan & Cheney 2005).

I posted a blog today at Vortaloptics about the subject of developing your personal brand. I’ll cover some of the highlights in this post, or read the full article at my company’s blog.

The recession has seriously eroded job security, worker benefits, and jobs in general. We’ve lost 5% of jobs so far due to the recession, offshoring and automation. Even more disheartening is that most of those lost jobs might not return to our shores for 5-10 years. Perhaps worse than that is that globalization might make upwards of 30% of our current positions offshorable within 20 years.

These trends though dismal, are no excuse for seeking refuge in a cave. With 45% of HR professionals utilizing social media to screen potential employees and 18% actually hiring someone based on a positive social media profile (Harris Interactive study), now is the time to package and promote yourself with purpose, thereby investing in your long-term employment and brand reputation.

To do this, your “best self”- your personal brand – needs to become visible in social media.

There is a plethora of great personal branding strategies out there, but I’m going to concentrate on four steps that will help you brand yourself and stay relevant.

1. Define your best attributes.

Find your niche and stick with it.  Being great at something is more likely to make you stand out than being mediocre at dozens of things.

To start the attribute definition exercise, jot down a “features and benefits” chart to articulate things like: your best traits (your thoughts on the matter and what others consistently say about you), the principles that you stand for and how these attributes can benefit the world via your workplace, personal relationships and outreach efforts.

2. Network: social media is where you’ll need to build the foundation of your brand.

Your social network is an investment in your future. Social media accounts are easy to come by but each network’s benefits can be lost on those who don’t delve into the finer details. Branch out and engage with people that you aspire to be like, work for, or receive mentorship from.

For instance, if you’re on Twitter, aspire up with regard to who you follow. Follow your industry’s big shots as well as the lesser-known people that post valuable insights into career and life. Look at the “following” list of people you respect and follow those same people. Learn from those who have more experience than you, a more distinct niche or habits that you’d like to imitate.

No matter which networks you choose to market yourself, take time to express yourself creatively in ways that will distinguish you from plain vanilla. This is where expressing your best self and your niche comes into play.

3. Maintain your personal brand.

Consistency and authenticity can make or break you over the long haul. Your attitude, relationships, habits, work ethic and contributions to the community can all influence what traits are expressed in your personal social profile over time.

When you post updates, ask yourself if the content you’re about to publish is congruent with who you are/want to be viewed as. Even when you’ve been wronged, it’s best to pause before you rant against an individual or a company. An impulsive post can remain in Google’s cache long after your whim expires.

4. Evolve your personal brand.

As your knowledge, experience and talents advance, make sure that your social media profile expresses the positive evolution of your brand. You don’t have to frenetically keep up with every last innovation but do commit to harmonizing your skill set with your industry’s development and always be  fostering efficiencies in your personal life.

Once you’ve built your personal brand on social media, persevere. This isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it exercise: this is a evolving expression of who you are throughout the course of your life.

Personal branding is here to stay

There is no replacement for personal face-to-face encounters with live human beings. But don’t be lulled into thinking that social media and the transparency it brings is just a trend. We will increasingly utilize the Internet, search and social media in its emergent forms to check in with and check up on the people we encounter.

If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to define, network, maintain and evolve your personal brand – your “best self” – with social networking.

For more a more detailed look at personal branding, download or buy Dan Schawbel’s popular book on the subject: Me 2.0.

This is the second patent for Vortaloptics’ vertical search software, the company that I work for, and the first patent that I’ve been awarded as a co-inventor, along with my husband, David Gosse and other members of our team. It’s exciting to be part of a team that is working hard to build better on-site search applications and to see the hard work and dedication rewarded with an official U.S. patent!

This patent describes part of our proprietary software that gives Vortaloptics clients more control over their search databases and how the search results are displayed for the end user.

Most search platforms consolidate multiple databases into one single end-user results format, but the level of control over how and where results are displayed can be sparse for many applications. This software provides granular control over which datasets are shown, what types of results are displayed and the exact prioritization of the results (if desired). Algorithms do the grunt work while humans are allowed to perfectly refine the end results to best fit the business model of a website and the needs of its end users.

The software is deployed in various vertical channels such as education websites, the multifamily industry, radio and TV sites and local search destinations.

The Vortaloptics team is looking forward to a productive and inventive year ahead.