When it comes to digital marketing, the first quarter of 2012 has proved to be a dynamic time for small businesses. While many technological changes in the past few years have prompted companies to rearrange the ways they engage consumers online, more have taken place in the past quarter, with even more to come. According to an article from Boston.com contributor Philip Guarino – founder of consulting firm Elementi Consulting – there are many technological changes that need to be addressed with small business internet marketing campaigns.

According to the news source, search engine optimization will be a major component to online marketing as Google will be changing its search engine algorithm. By tweaking the way it ranks search engine results, Google will give more credit toward sites that use keywords moderately and focus more on quality of content rather than advertent search engine optimization.

While Google adjusts its search engine algorithms, many companies can be expected to reach out toward major social networking influencers. With the advent of startups like Klout that assign a score to social media influence companies are starting to target these consumers as a means to inform their peers on the company's differentiators. One example of this is how Las Vegas hotels are starting to offer room upgrades to patrons with high Klout scores, expecting them to tweet or share the incident on Facebook or other social network sites.

Also, with Apple's latest iPad flying off the shelves and iPhones continuing to dominate the mobile device market, the news source says that many companies will start to move their digital advertising campaigns toward mobile rather than being primarily web based.