Top 10 Social Media Marketing Tips for 2013

Many social media sites started out as personal sites but social media marketing has become one of the most powerful online strategies for businesses, online and offline.
In 2002, Friendster was launched in the U.S and then in 2003 MySpace began.
Next to be launched was Facebook in 2004. Facebook was originally started for students but quickly spread, becoming much more. Twitter was born two years later in 2006. Pinterest, said to be the fastest growing site ever, was launched in 2010.
All of these sites, along with others, have become powerhouses in social media marketing. As each year passes the possibilities continue to grow and expand. There probably are not many businesses left that do not engage in social media marketing.
These social sites are continually growing, expanding and changing and it can sometimes be difficult to keep up with the changes.
Below are the top 10 tips to help your social media marketing in 2013.

1. Make your posts more relevant — When people first started using the social sites they were posting things like “Going shopping today with the kids. Wish me luck!” The social sites have grown and changed. You need to start posting more relevant information. Make it about your readers and followers, not about you. Post solutions, inspiration and interesting facts that can be useful and helpful.

2. Utilize features and tools — Social sites are increasing the possibilities for your business with more tools and features than ever before. Take stock of all of these tools and learn to use them for the benefit of your followers and your business.

3. Visual marketing — Marketing is going visual and you need to do the same. Embed text and your business info in relevant graphics to post. Pinterest, using image sharing, has broken records with its growth. Pictures are also the mostly widely used and shared method of posting on Facebook. When people share your images you want them to see your website link or other relevant info.

4. Help Your Clients/Readers — No matter what business you are in, you cannot provide solutions to all your clients’ needs. Be willing to post links, information and resources of other businesses that can help your clients when you cannot.

5. Use Your Analytics — Review your analytics regularly to see what is working and what isn’t. Are people visiting one social site more than others? When are people visiting your pages? Find out everything you can from your results. You can learn a lot from your analytics but you must use them to reap the benefits.

6. Host events — Hold regular events such as giveaways, seminars, chats, networking parties, promotions, etc. Facebook has recently updated its event feature so it is easier and more efficient.

7. Connections not sales — Use your social media pages to connect with your potential customers not for sales. You want to use social media to share information, respond to questions and comments and to showcase what your business is about. You don’t want to continually bombard your social sites with sales pitches and ads. Help your followers find solutions, do not pitch to them.

8. Slideshare — Slideshare is predicted to be the fastest growing social site in 2013. Slideshare will allow you to share your presentations with millions. You can also share documents, PDFs and videos. The possibilities are endless with this site.

9. Google+ — Google+ will be more important to your business. By being on Google+, you will be able to take full advantage of Google’s many services and tools. It hasn’t the social power of some of the other sites, but it is a central part of Google and you should be a part of it.

10. Use fewer social sites — Concentrating your marketing efforts to a few of the better-producing sites is more effective than spreading yourself too thin over many of the social sites. The time it takes to successfully participate in social media is substantial, so you need to build a strong presence on the sites that deliver rather than trying to dominate them all.
Social media marketing is expected to reach new and unequaled heights in 2013. Don’t let your business be left behind. Become active with social media. Really get involved. Make new connections and post relevant visual items. Make it about your followers and clients, not about what cereal you had for breakfast.

http://www.sitepronews.com/2013/02/01/top-10-social-media-marketing-tips-for-2013/

8 Great Reasons to Start Using Pinterest for Your Small Business

In the past several months, use of the new social media platform ‘Pinterest’ has increased exponentially, especially among young, professional age men and women. While the appeal may not seem obvious to those of us who did not grow up with social media, many small businesses are getting greater reach and building deeper relationships with new prospects and clients.
Here are eight reasons to use Pinterest to market your business and online Web presence now.

1. Consumers searching less, discovering more
There has been a dramatic shift in Internet behavior from pointedly searching for products, services or information to a more free-form method of discovering new things. Discovery allows people browsing the Internet to find not only information, but inspiration. Pinterest is riding the wave of this new phenomenon, stepping in before you perform the Web search on Google. Often, it is even before you have thought of paying for a particular product or service. As such, it is a great way to get exposure for your business by creating quality image-heavy content that people can re-pin on their Pinterest boards. In addition, frequent keyword term searches in Google now result in pinterest page URLs by other companies when optimized for SEO correctly.

2. Little interaction needed to build brand awareness
One of the most pressing concerns for any department managing an online brand is the question of “Do we have the resources (money and labor) to do this right?” Luckily, your involvement with Pinterest can be minimal, and there is extremely low overhead. With a few minutes of regular pinning, categorizing, and tagging a day, there’s little else to worry about. No need to manage commenting or spend a lot of time following and friending others; you simply promote your content in your own time.

3. Connect with your audience visually
Pinterest is almost exclusively a visual medium. It attracts a different type of crowd, as well as behavior, than your standard Weblog. To many people, images and videos have a greater appeal than words, but most information on the Web is rarely delivered through this medium. Think of how many people make their livings as bloggers and podcasters. You can tap into a whole new segment of buyers by building a community around your pinned images. Browsers who are inspired by your account spread the word, giving you more free referrals.

4. Helps connect with people too shy to have their own blog
Many people are simply too shy to have a blog, or don’t care for the work involved of constantly creating content. With Pinterest anyone can have their own online Web presence made up of interesting and inspiring images. People don’t have to actually create their own content, but can express themselves using other found content online. Additionally, this spares you the time and effort of constantly creating fresh content. You can still increase your traffic simply by building relationships with people through unoriginal, re-pinned content.

5. Amplifies original content.
Pinterest is usually best compared to Tumblr, a similar concept, but applied to all forms of Internet content rather than primarily images. The average Tumblr post gets picked up and rerun somewhere else on the Internet nine times. Using Tumblr, it reaches far more people than if it had solely remained on the original content site. It is still too soon to have any definitive metrics from Pinterest, but one would assume the effect will be the same. As your content is re-pinned regularly, your audience grows exponentially.

6. A Re-Pin is the new ReTweet
It is entirely possible to build a community without creating any original content simply by sharing other people’s pins. This is extremely similar to the way Twitter power users were able to build an impressive following by simply retweeting and Tumblr bloggers who have simply reblogged other people’s content.

7. Allows you to find nichesPinterest allows people to express themselves through a blend of their many disparate interests. This allows you to not only find out about new and different market segments, but see the relationship between differing markets and differing segments. You can further divide your content and offerings into particular segments within your market. For example, a garden store might have a pin board for different gardening tools, flowers, vegetables, and other reader-generated needs in the market.

8. Builds authority.
Even if your business doesn’t necessarily lend itself to Pinterest’s model, you can still use the tool to share experiences and expertise on a particular region, industry or relationship. Again you can build different boards to target particular segments and showcase your knowledge areas. For example, a Web strategist might have boards such as “Social Networking Tools,” “Top Pros in the Web Analytics Business,” etc.

http://www.sitepronews.com/2013/03/15/8-great-reasons-to-start-using-pinterest-for-your-small-business/

10 Tips for Using Twitter Like a Pro

It's been seven years since the popular social network was first launched.
In honor of the milestone, we've compiled this list of tips for how entrepreneurs can get the most out of Twitter for their businesses:

1. Ensure your Twitter account reflects your brand.
Believe it or not, some companies don't take full advantage of Twitter for branding purposes. When setting up your account, create a handle that's related to your brand name and use your company logo as your Twitter picture.

 

2. Keep photo size in mind.
When choosing images for your profile, be mindful of the type of image you're selecting and the size it will appear. Profile pictures, for instance, are small: 81 x 81 pixels. Your header image should measure 520 x 260 pixels.
3. Go beyond general, impersonal marketing messages.
Of course you want to use Twitter to spread the word about your products and services. But if that's all you share, and if you share them frequently, you can bore your customers and turn them away. In addition to your marketing, sprinkle in unique, personalized messages that engage consumers one-on-one, as well as links to interesting, useful articles online.
4. Don't ignore customer service.
An increasing number of your customers are most likely taking to Twitter to voice their satisfaction -- and potentially their problems -- with your products and services. Don't ignore these messages. Monitor Twitter for mentions of your brand and respond quickly to any questions or concerns. You might also consider creating a secondary account specifically for customer service.
5. Use hashtags wisely.
You can use hashtags -- a word or series of characters preceded by the # symbol -- to categorize messages and can make it easier for other Twitter users to search for tweets. But remember that you can't control what your followers and others on Twitter will say using hashtags you've created. Some of those comments could be negative or otherwise used in ways you didn't intend.
6. Play nice.
You might be tempted to talk politics on Twitter. Or bash your competition or voice personal opinions about sensitive topics. But if you wouldn't say these things in front of clients, it's probably best to keep them off your branded social media accounts. On Twitter, adopt a tone that reflects your company's image and keep your personal opinions to yourself.
7. Try creating a Twitter contest.
Help spread the word about your products and services for free. When a third party spreads positive comments about your products or services, it gives your company credibility and helps sell your products.
8. Track analytics to develop more effective marketing campaigns.
Although Twitter doesn't really offer an internal analytics program for standard users, tools such as Tweriod and Followerwonk can allow users to track things like the geographic distribution of followers and the hours your followers are most active. Understanding this type of information can help you plan more effective marketing campaign and schedules.
9. Clean up your account.
On Twitter, one of your primary goals should be to interact with followers. Consider unfollowing low-quality accounts including spammers and people who don't follow you back. FriendorFollow is a popular service that makes it easy to see and disconnect from any non-followers.
10. Change your password regularly.
You don't want your branded Twitter account falling into the hands of hackers. Change your passwords frequently, and consider using random numbers, letters and symbols that aren't necessarily related to your brand.


http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226178

Ranking #1 in Google for 110K Exact in 30 Days

10 big lessons for anyone looking to market themselves on YouTube

I was recently fortunate enough to attend two really cool Google events: Engage and YouTube All Stars. Getting the chance to interact with some of the intriguing innovations and latest news to do with Google is pretty cool. Getting the chance to do so with products developed solely to help any business out there succeed on and off-line is even cooler.
Engage was divided into three segments — Pitch Perfect, AdWords Bootcamp and Above & Beyond — meaning that you could tailor your experience according to your interests.
The presentation that stood out for me surrounded building and maintaining client relations, where Google’s Craig Wing made it clear that “when selling your business, you are not just selling your business, but you are in fact also selling yourself”. This is so true! Avinesh Pillay backed this up, saying: “even if you fail the pitch and you do not get the deal, do not fail selling yourself as you as a person will always be remembered”.
Those lessons are applicable to any business but are also clearly ones that the success stories at the YouTube All Stars event had taken to heart.
YouTube All Stars Event

At the event, YouTube showed how the likes of Caspar Lee, Rob Vamplew (Rob The Ranger) and energy expert Martin Lorton, make a substantial monthly income through Google AdSense and how people like acapella singing group The Soil achieved international fame after showcasing their talent on YouTube.
Peter Cilliers is another of these success stories. Cilliers started the channel Six Pack Factory as a way of chronicling his weight loss. It’s since become a serious money spinner for him. In one month, he made R80 000 from Adsense ads alone. He shared some tips and advice when to achieve success while earning revenue through your own channel on YouTube:
1.Take action and get started
Create an account and start uploading videos, no matter what camera or phone you are using. Just start and keep going.
2. Continuity is key
Do not be demotivated after uploading one or two videos with little interaction, sharing or no views at all. Sometimes it can take anywhere from six to 14 months before getting noticed and going viral. Tell people in your video to share, take action or when your next video is due to be uploaded.
3. Have a clear goal for your channel and videos
Before you start make sure every video you upload is towards your main goal for your channel and videos.
4. Be unique and different
If you are competing in a niche where someone else is already established (or not), you have to make sure that what you are presenting or at least the way you are presenting it, is done in a unique and different matter to ensure engagement and growth of your subscribers. Target a really microscopic, detailed, refined niche.
5. Interact with your fans
No matter how big you grow or small you still are, remember to interact with your fans and at the same time listen to them in order to make sure you give them what they want. Reply to comments, ask them questions, give away prizes, feature them in videos or Do Google Hangouts.
6. Customize / brand your channel
From the start you can brand your channel making sure the background is relevant and standing out. Also make sure your avatar is universal stays the same all over each and every social network. When you reach partner status ensure the added features compliment your branding.
7. CTA: Call to action
Ensure you use annotation features of YouTube and visual design and recorded movie effects to bring forth your call to actions. People will then tend to respond, as it is more user-friendly.
8. Never leave your videos open-ended
At the end of your video you can add annotations over nice CTA images to ensure the viewer does not end there but continues to other videos or engages more with your channel.
9. Use annotations
This function gets repeated a lot as there is so much one can do with it. For example, create a video with images which link to all your other videos via annotations over these images that form or look like navigation buttons.

10. SEO your videos correctly
Make sure you use the right title, description and tags relevant to your video and its content. Also make sure your custom thumbnail is relevant and attracts attention.

http://memeburn.com/2013/03/10-big-lessons-for-anyone-looking-to-market-themselves-on-youtube/

Using Twitter for Sales and Marketing

image credit: theglobepress.com

 

Businesses are discovering that Twitter is a very effective tool for marketing, sales, technical support, and customer support. Your prospects and customers are talking about you and your competitors on Twitter, so you need to be listening to what they say and adapting your Twitter strategy to respond to their conversations. You can also use Twitter to proactively promote your brand, generate leads, promote company events and engage with your customers and prospects in real time.
Here are some ideas for using Twitter as a marketing channel:
Promote your brand by optimizing your Twitter profile.
Be sure to:

Use your logo as your profile picture.

• Use your brand name as your Twitter handle and your Twitter username.
• Use your brand name in your Twitter bio, and add a link to a white paper in your bio.
• Add your website's URL to your profile.
• Use your brand name as your hashtag and include it in all Tweets.

Generate leads by offering white papers, instructional videos, e-books and product samples if appropriate.
Write a compelling Tweet with a link to the lead generation asset. Always send visitors to a separate landing page with an opt-in form for each asset you Tweeted about. After visitors opt in to receive the asset, follow up with a series of emails that introduce them to your products and to additional white papers, videos and e-books. Track your results so you know which assets are most popular and which Tweets generate the best response. Tweets are like subject lines in your emails, so track your Tweets in a spreadsheet so you know which work best.
Promote webinars, conferences, training classes, and other events sponsored by your company.
Write Tweets that promote the events, and include a link to a landing page where customers can sign up for the events. Again, use a separate landing page for each event and track your results.
Display the Twitter logo prominently on your website and encourage people to follow you on Twitter.
Also add links to your Twitter page in your email footer, on your blogs and in your email newsletters. Constantly ask people to follow you in all your marketing materials.

If appropriate, offer discount codes in your Tweets.
Twitter has also become a very effective sales tool for both B2B and B2C businesses. In B2B sales, Twitter helps you keep your name in front of prospects when you have a long sales cycle. In B2C sales, you can Tweet promotions and coupon codes and create contests to generate sales. Here are some ideas for using Twitter for sales:
Listen!
Monitor your competitors' brand names and hashtags to see what people are saying about them on Twitter. When you see negative Tweets about their products or service, use it as a competitive selling point. Listen for positive and negative comments about your products and services as well. Engage unsatisfied customers or prospects immediately to defuse the situation. The key is to address their concerns quickly so you can turn the negative sentiment into positive sentiment publicly.
Use Twitter Search to find people using your target keywords in their Twitter profiles, hashtags, and Tweets.
They may be dissatisfied with your competitor's product and are looking for a solution to their problem. These people are potential prospects, so you should check out their profiles and follow them. After you follow them, see who they're following and keep following more potential prospects as you find them. Add your prospects to a Twitter list so it's easier for you to monitor and communicate with them.
When you have a prospect in your sales funnel, engage them in conversation publicly on Twitter.
Send them links to new white papers or videos to introduce them to new features in your products.
Hold contests to generate sales.
You could have people Tweet a picture of themselves using your product, with the winner receiving a discount on their next purchase.
Tweet coupon codes.
One of the most popular searches on Twitter Search is for "coupon codes" for specific brands or products.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226149#ixzz2R0ACiSRZ

10 big lessons for anyone looking to market themselves on YouTube

I was recently fortunate enough to attend two really cool Google events: Engage and YouTube All Stars. Getting the chance to interact with some of the intriguing innovations and latest news to do with Google is pretty cool. Getting the chance to do so with products developed solely to help any business out there succeed on and off-line is even cooler.
Engage was divided into three segments — Pitch Perfect, AdWords Bootcamp and Above & Beyond — meaning that you could tailor your experience according to your interests.
The presentation that stood out for me surrounded building and maintaining client relations, where Google’s Craig Wing made it clear that “when selling your business, you are not just selling your business, but you are in fact also selling yourself”. This is so true! Avinesh Pillay backed this up, saying: “even if you fail the pitch and you do not get the deal, do not fail selling yourself as you as a person will always be remembered”.
Those lessons are applicable to any business but are also clearly ones that the success stories at the YouTube All Stars event had taken to heart.
YouTube All Stars Event

At the event, YouTube showed how the likes of Caspar Lee, Rob Vamplew (Rob The Ranger) and energy expert Martin Lorton, make a substantial monthly income through Google AdSense and how people like acapella singing group The Soil achieved international fame after showcasing their talent on YouTube.
Peter Cilliers is another of these success stories. Cilliers started the channel Six Pack Factory as a way of chronicling his weight loss. It’s since become a serious money spinner for him. In one month, he made R80 000 from Adsense ads alone. He shared some tips and advice when to achieve success while earning revenue through your own channel on YouTube:
1.Take action and get started
Create an account and start uploading videos, no matter what camera or phone you are using. Just start and keep going.
2. Continuity is key
Do not be demotivated after uploading one or two videos with little interaction, sharing or no views at all. Sometimes it can take anywhere from six to 14 months before getting noticed and going viral. Tell people in your video to share, take action or when your next video is due to be uploaded.
3. Have a clear goal for your channel and videos
Before you start make sure every video you upload is towards your main goal for your channel and videos.
4. Be unique and different
If you are competing in a niche where someone else is already established (or not), you have to make sure that what you are presenting or at least the way you are presenting it, is done in a unique and different matter to ensure engagement and growth of your subscribers. Target a really microscopic, detailed, refined niche.
5. Interact with your fans
No matter how big you grow or small you still are, remember to interact with your fans and at the same time listen to them in order to make sure you give them what they want. Reply to comments, ask them questions, give away prizes, feature them in videos or Do Google Hangouts.
6. Customize / brand your channel
From the start you can brand your channel making sure the background is relevant and standing out. Also make sure your avatar is universal stays the same all over each and every social network. When you reach partner status ensure the added features compliment your branding.
7. CTA: Call to action
Ensure you use annotation features of YouTube and visual design and recorded movie effects to bring forth your call to actions. People will then tend to respond, as it is more user-friendly.
8. Never leave your videos open-ended
At the end of your video you can add annotations over nice CTA images to ensure the viewer does not end there but continues to other videos or engages more with your channel.
9. Use annotations
This function gets repeated a lot as there is so much one can do with it. For example, create a video with images which link to all your other videos via annotations over these images that form or look like navigation buttons.

10. SEO your videos correctly
Make sure you use the right title, description and tags relevant to your video and its content. Also make sure your custom thumbnail is relevant and attracts attention.

http://memeburn.com/2013/03/10-big-lessons-for-anyone-looking-to-market-themselves-on-youtube/

How to Increase Your Twitter Traffic

In a few short years, Twitter has become extremely popular around the world. People tweet about many different topics. Many talk about their personal interests while others use Twitter as a way to promote their business, website or artwork. Twitter is one of the most effective ways to increase traffic to your website.
With increased traffic, you’ll likely make more sales. But, how can you increase your Twitter traffic? Here are some effective ways to do that.
A good place to begin is by letting others know that you are on Twitter. You can include a link to your Twitter profile in emails, blog posts, and your website.
Tweeting regularly also helps to drive traffic to your site. This will help you to gain followers who may visit your site through links in your tweets. Also be sure to have a link to your site on your profile.
Find quality accounts in your niche to follow and retweet some of their best content. Many of them will follow you back.
You will want to build good relationships with your followers. Don’t inundate your followers with promotions or too many links. Concentrate on posting helpful information and interacting with your followers.
Using Twitter can be a lot of fun, but it also takes hard work to use it effectively to promote your business. Don’t expect results overnight. It takes time to build up a respectable following of people who trust you enough to further investigate your business. If you concentrate on quality instead of taking shortcuts, you will no doubt find Twitter to be a very effective tool for reaching out to your customers.

http://newmarketspace.com/how-to-increase-your-twitter-traffic/

4 Things You Need to be Doing on Social Media -- Now

Image credit: Shutterstock

By now, if social media isn't a critical element in your online marketing strategy, it should be. Having a presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can add value to your product, to customer service and ultimately to your brand.
But simply having an account and broadcasting company news isn't enough. To attract and keep customers -- and to build a strong brand online -- business owners need to be active on social media. They have to provide valuable information and engage with their followers.
Here are four things businesses should be doing on social media in order to grow the brand online:
1. Engage with followers and provide customer service.
Your customers are engaging with your brand wherever they are -- including over social media. Don't miss this opportunity to listen to what they're saying to and about you, and to provide the best customer service.
Why is this so important? Responding to customer questions and resolving issues over social media shows everyone who's following you -- and potentially anyone who is online -- that your company cares about its customers, potential customers and goes the extra mile for people.

Tools like Hootsuite and Tweedeck can be handy for monitoring mentions of your brand over social media. As for when and who you respond to, set the tone early. If you reply often, people will expect it. If you don't reply a lot, people will see that as well and might stop engaging with you as often.
2. Crowdsource ideas.
Use social media as a marketing research tool. Just as people can reach out to you, follow you and stay connected with you, business owners can do the same with their customers. Social media is a two-way street.
Say, for instance, you're getting ready to launch a new product. You can ask your fans and followers what they think about specific details like which colors they prefer or what types of features they want. Not only can you get real, valuable market research at no cost, you're involving the consumer in decisions. Asking customers for their opinions can help show that they matter, and when they see their ideas become a reality, ideally you create brand and product champions.

3. Keep an eye on the competition.
Remember the old saying: Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.
When it comes to business, it's good to know what your competitors and other companies in your market niche are doing. By keeping an eye on their social media feeds, you can learn a lot about a company -- what it is doing differently, what it's good at and what it's bad it. Use this information to implement things in your strategy that you might be missing such as contests, giveaways or forms of content that their followers respond to most.
4. Establish yourself as an industry expert.
Nobody can know what you know unless you share your knowledge. By sharing information like tips, advice and answering questions about your industry, you can position yourself as a valuable resource.
Develop a content-sharing strategy where you respond to questions daily, provide unsolicited tips and share your perspective on industry news. Over sites like Twitter and reddit, also consider scheduling events such as question and answer sessions. Let your followers know that you'll be hosting the session, set the date and time, and determine the theme or topic you'd like to discuss. Then let your followers know that you'll try to answer everything they ask.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226214

Should Your Business Have a Podcast?

Image credit: Shutterstock

Your business probably has a website, Twitter account and Facebook page, but does it need a podcast? Consumers enjoy podcasts because it gives them alternative and more convenient ways to consume content, says Deborah Shane, a Florida-based branding expert and podcast host.
She says that more professionals are using podcasts as a marketing tool to establish expertise and distinguish themselves from the competition. Shane's Metropolis Radio business podcast has featured more than 350 guests and has been downloaded 245,000 times in the last four years. The 15 to 30 minute segments consist of interviews with expert guests on topics such as branding, social media, and entrepreneurship. "Podcasting has opened up more doors than just about any platform I've used," Shane says. By inviting experts as guests on her show, she's networking, building credibility, and making professional connections.
 But podcasting is a time commitment. Shane suggests waiting a month before you start promoting your podcast. Use that time to create visual branding for your site, think about the content you'll provide, the show's format, how frequently you'll record the podcast and which guests you'll invite on the show, etc.
Shane recommends using BlogTalkRadio, which offers a free, turnkey solution to record your show and link it to iTunes, Facebook and Twitter. Once a show is scheduled through BlogTalkRadio, the host and their guest(s) call a special number and are patched through to a "studio" dashboard that the host controls on his or her computer where he or she can take calls live or interview through the switchboard.
The show is recorded live and archived as a podcast, where it's made available on iTunes and can be shared on social networks or blogs. Editing is not available with the free version, but premium paid levels (which range from $39-$249 a month) allow users to edit their shows.
Here are six things to consider before starting a podcast:
1. Choose your format. Shane uses a late night talk show format and discusses talking points with her guests beforehand, but allows the conversation to evolve on the show. Another popular format is giving a tutorial or lecture on a topic relevant to your business that many people have questions about.
2. Record a podcast at least once a week. You want to listeners to know when to expect new content. While "live listeners" (people listening to the show as it airs) are great, Shane says the goal is to increase the number of downloads your podcast receives once it's posted.
3. Find guests with energy. Your guest may be brilliant in their field, but you want someone who's interesting and with whom you can have a good conversation. Shane suggests reaching out to experts in your field who have written a book or have a lot of Twitter followers, so they can promote their appearance on your show. The appearance is mutually beneficial, as they are gaining credibility as an expert, and you're building an audience and area of expertise.
"Great guests are actively marketing on their own social media platforms. They have energy, articulate well and know how to tell their story," Shane says.
4. Practice. Do two or three practice shows to get the feel for podcasting. Shane recommends recording a few test shows and posting them on your site to become comfortable with the process before promoting the podcast. You can set the show as "test" or "private" when scheduling your podcast.
5. Promote your podcast consistently. Use your other social media platforms, blog, website, etc. to promote your podcast before, during, and after the show has been recorded. BlogTalkRadio allows you to post updates automatically to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
6. Get ideas from the competition. Visit podcast.com or iTunes to see how other businesses are using podcasts to promote themselves.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226298

5 Online Marketing Strategies for a Tight Budget

Image credit: Shutterstock

In a world where attention is currency, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to attract the eyes and ears of your target market. Not only are you up against larger companies with nicely funded marketing departments, you're also competing with social media and a multitude of other distractions for the attention of your prospects.
But that doesn't mean your marketing efforts have to cost a ton of money or be overly dramatic in order to stand out from the crowd. Here are five creative and inexpensive ways to market your business in a digital world:
1. Get endorsed by a local celebrity.
Many business owners dream of having their product or service endorsed by a global celebrity. But instead of trying to get a superstar to support your business, try seeking out a local celebrity instead.
Who exactly are local celebrities? These are people your local paper is writing about -- perhaps an "unsung hero" such as a teacher or a resident who's doing something positive and newsworthy. Since they're in your neighborhood, these people should be relatively easy to locate and contact by phone or e-mail. Let them know you'd like to send them a gift, namely your product or service.

 

The only catch: you'd like to follow up with them in a few days to get their honest feedback. Their responses can make for useful blog or marketing content.

2. Create a LinkedIn group.
Not only is a LinkedIn group free to create, it can enable you to offer your professional network a vibrant, useful information resource all while driving traffic to your site and increasing sales. Just don't use the platform to hard sell anyone.
It can take time and effort to get one going, but the goal should be to help provide resources and start discussions on topics that can benefit your community. Groups should also be a place for your members to network with other professionals online.
3. Get published on niche blogs.
While it may be difficult to get on the front cover of a major magazine, you can create marketing opportunities by being featured in a popular niche blog. Identify three to five blogs that target your market then contact the creator and offer a few ideas of how you'd like to bring value to his or her readers. You can:

• Demonstrate good will by offering the niche blog owner a small amount of your product or service for free, which they can give away to their audience as a gift. This is different than a product review, which only offers information.
• Send ideas for blog posts you'd like to write and explain why they would be helpful for their readers.
• Ask if you can interview them for your site. This might entice the blog manager to promote your content since it highlights his or her business.

4. Create videos for YouTube.
With more than 800 million unique visitors a month, YouTube can be a powerful platform for marketing a business online. To do so, go beyond simply posting random videos of your product or sharing your thoughts.

The marketing videos you create should include the following elements:

• A keyword-researched headline
• A clear editorial message (don't try to accomplish too much in one video)
• A call to action (tell the viewer to do something, such as subscribing to your channel)

While you can spend a small fortune on cameras, lighting equipment and editing software, the camera built into your smartphone should be able to capture suitable online video. As for editing, if you're on a Mac, for instance, you should already have iMovie in your applications. Even if you don't have a Mac you can find free software online or hire a professional editor on sites such as Fiverr.com, possibly for as little as $5 depending on the scope of the work.
5. Write an e-book about the biggest issues in your industry.
No longer do you need a publishing company or thousands of dollars to get distribution for a book. Amazon, for instance, will let you upload a digital book for free, with a 33 percent take on every sale. The goal is not to make a profit from direct book sales but to use it as a lead generation tool, encouraging readers to opt into your website for further information.
Even time-strapped entrepreneurs who aren't great writers should consider this. You can search sites like E-lance or Odesk to hire an affordable ghostwriter who can help you convert your blog posts or audio recordings into book format.
When it comes to marketing your book, set the price between $1 and $5 -- which makes it affordable -- then use social media, video marketing and e-mail list marketing to promote it. To generate more leads, keep in mind that Amazon allows prospective buyers of your book to take a sneak peek of the first few pages. Be sure to embed links into these early pages so you can capture leads from people who were interested but didn't wind up buying your book.


http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226146

18 Tweetable Twitter Tips for Newbies

 

For those of us who’ve been using Twitter for a while, we sometimes forget that there are new adopters of the network every day. Trying to figure out Twitter back in the day was bad enough; can you imagine what it’s like these days?
So here are 18 tweetable Twitter tips for newbies (check out that alliteration!). They include tips on how to get set up with, and use smartly, a social network I still love.
And I’ve also included a “tweet this” link for a Twitter-friendly version of each tip (hence the “tweetability”). So if you particularly like some, perhaps you wouldn’t mind sharing?
1. Use a real photo of yourself for your avatar. (I know, sounds like a d’uh moment, but you’d be surprised).
2. Make sure your avatar is “SFW” (safe for work… and yes, you’d be surprised again).

3. Use your real name, or some iteration thereof, as your Twitter handle. Leave your inner Hotlips Houlihan alone.

4. Try to keep your Twitter handle to as few characters as possible. This gives you more “real estate” to use when actually tweeting.

5. Fill out your 160-character bio. Creativity is fine, but don’t overdo it.

6. Use “Twitter speak” in your bio, such as other Twitter handles to refer to organizations and appropriate hashtags. These show as live links on Twitter.com, so have the advantage of “fleshing out” your bio, not to mention show you understand the lingo.

7. Include a link in your Twitter profile. If nothing else, use your LinkedIn profile; else your personal website or blog or, if a business account, to your company’s preferred URL. People like to know who they’re talking to (and might end up doing business with).

8. Don’t have an overly complicated Twitter background that makes your profile hard to view on the web. It’s distracting.

9. Use the “mom” rule of thumb when conversing on Twitter; if Mom wouldn’t like it, don’t say it.

10. Acknowledge and reply to @ mentions as soon as possible.

11. Attribute blog posts, news articles or other curated information to the original source using their Twitter handle.

12. Leave at least 10-12 character spaces in your tweets, so others can easily retweet you if they wish to.

13. Use “MT” to indicate you are retweeting another’s tweet, but with modifications of your own.

14. Use hashtags wisely; they can be a great way of broadening a conversation and audience, but irritating if overused.

15. Don’t use auto-DMs or “verification” programs to “welcome” new followers. The best way to welcome someone is to start talking to them on the public timeline.

16. Don’t constantly DM your followers asking them to share news, promotional events, etc. Use your asks sparingly, and they are more likely to be well-received.

17. Don’t automatically RT tweets, especially those of a “breaking news” nature, without first verifying the source and accuracy of content.

18. Don’t click on suspicious links in your DM stream, that urge you to see “what they’re saying about you,” etc. Instead, send your friend who supposedly sent that to you a message – on the public timeline, or another network, if you are connected there – to let them know their Twitter account has been hacked.

http://www.waxingunlyrical.com/2013/03/18/18-tweetable-twitter-tips-for-newbies/

Your Guide for Creating & Optimizing Video Content that Ranks on Google

How YouTube Can Help Your Business: Why Video Content Is Great for SEO
Having a hard time getting your business to show up on Google's first page? You might be surprised at just how much a YouTube video could help.
In an aim to give searchers the best set of results possible, Google has continued to grow its blended search results, offering videos and images in addition to classic website content on Google’s valuable first page.
This can be frustrating for some businesses that once had first-page rankings, but have since been pushed off by video and image results.

The blended search results can work in your favor too though, especially for small businesses. Create the right kind of SEO-friendly YouTube videos, and you could find yourself with some prime Google real estate that’d be much more difficult to obtain with a regular webpage result.
While it can be difficult to usurp well-established competitors from the top webpage queries, the competition for videos is much lower, giving smaller businesses an enormous opportunity to rank high in the SERPs.

Step 1: Creating Your Video Content — Ideas and Concepts

Some businesses, like Orabrush, have been lucky enough to create video ads that have gone viral, but hoping for results like this can set you up for failure—having a video “go viral” is unlikely and difficult to achieve.

Instead, create a video that isn’t a commercial, but instead provides valuable information people will want to share with their friends. Consider:

• Product Demonstrations—Try creating videos that would show consumers how to select one of your products based on their unique needs, or a video demonstrating how to use your product.
• Educational Videos—Think tutorials, learning videos, and how-to sessions demonstrating your industry knowledge. After all, you are the expert at what you do, so showcase your expertise!

With people becoming increasingly reliant on searching the web for help and advice, I’m more in favor of the educational resource videos. People will be grateful to you if you teach them something, and while it requires some selflessness on your part, demonstrating the knowledge and confidence you hold in regards to your industry works in your favor.
Some example ideas might be:

• Selling winter apparel? Show different ways to wear scarves, or demo different styles of winter jackets for different needs.
• Do you bake custom cupcakes? Show some of your baking process, how you pick out ingredients, and give some baking tips for viewers at home.

When brainstorming your video content, also think about:

• What keywords are you shooting for? Just as you keep in mind your keywords when you create SEO content for your website, you want to consider what keywords you’ll use for your video. Conduct some solid keyword research and find some good long-tails to use. You can judge the competition for certain keywords by searching YouTube and seeing how many results come up.
• A possible series? Once you find some really great concepts, you might be able to generate ideas for a regular, ongoing series. Or at least a hit mini-series.

Step 2: Recording Your Video Content

Consumer video recording devices work great, and depending on the quality, your webcam might be just fine too. Don’t worry if your video doesn’t look super professional—a bit of that home-made quality assures viewers that it’s not just another commercial video.
Before recording, review the main points you want to talk about and practice several times. You can give a quick plug for your business at the beginning and end of your video, and be sure to include a link to your site.
You’ll want to keep the complete edited recording relatively short: ideally between 2-3 minutes. There’s a wide selection of free editing software available that will do the trick so long as you don’t want to get too advanced. You might even already have some video editing software on your computer without realizing it—Windows usually has Movie Maker packaged, and Macs have iMovie.
Bonus Hint: You technically don’t really need to record a video – you can use screen captures or slide shows just as easily. Where is the fun in that though? You’ll never get discovered by Hollywood that way

http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/01/10/rank-on-google-with-video-content-part-one

10 SEO Reasons to Add Facebook to Your Content Strategy

Over a year ago now, both Google and Bing announced that they factor social signals from social media into their organic search algorithms. As the lines between social media and search engine optimization continue to thin, social media will gain importance for SEO. As Google described it, social media is about relationships and relationships prove relevance. Relevance is at the core of organic search.
It’s well known that Facebook has 845 million active users and 50% log in daily. These numbers are astounding! I guarantee you that your customers and prospects are included in those numbers. They are on Facebook and they’re likely trying to engage with your brand.
If you don’t yet have a Facebook Page for your organization, you really ought to consider optimizing your content marketing strategy to include one.
Here are 10 SEO reasons why your organization needs a Facebook presence:

1. Google and Bing crawl and index Facebook Pages because they are publicly available. As a result, Facebook Pages do indeed come up in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
2. Google announced in early November 2011 that they now crawl and index Facebook Comments.
3. People are starting their branded searches at the Facebook search box. Test to see if your brand comes up when you search for it in Facebook.
4. SEO is now about web presence optimization (WPO) and Facebook is a must for any web presence.
5. Your target audience (unless you think they’re not included in the 845 million Facebook users) is hanging out there.
6. The “Like” button is the new “backlink.”
7. The “Liker” (the Facebook User who did the “Liking”) is the new “lead” or “contact.”
8. Your Facebook presence adds quality backlinks to your website.
9. Facebook is accessible on mobile devices, giving your prospects and clients easy access to your content and brand.
10. Your competitors most likely have a Facebook presence.

SEO as a digital marketing tactic continues to evolve because our friends, at places such as Google, keep adjusting their organic search algorithms. In fact, it is estimated that in the past 12 months Google made 500 adjustments to their algorithm. As the lines between SEO and social media continue to fade, we can count on one thing – that Google will continue to tweak their algorithm to include more emphasis on social signals coming from not just Facebook, but also Twitter and Google +1.
Learn how to optimize your Facebook Page for organic search and improve your web presence. DOWNLOAD: SEO your Business Facebook Page for Google – A How-To Guide
This is a guest post by Krista LaRiviere, CoFounder & CEO of gShift Labs, a web presence optimization company. She blogs and speaks about SEO and the importance of social media, public relations, and press releases to SEO. Her team has helped hundreds of organizations get control of their entire web presence in order to rank higher organically in the search engines. She believes SEO campaigns should be just as easy to execute, track, manage, and measure as email marketing and paid search. Connect with Krista: @KristaLariviere, +KristaLariviere, @gShiftLabs, +gShiftLabs, and on Facebook.

http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/04/03/facebook-seo-content-strategy

The Benefits of Online 'Office Hours': Why You Should Consider Live-Tweet Sessions

Last week the White House launched a new “Office Hours” Twitter program, in which U.S. citizens are invited to tweet their questions and concerns over the nation’s deficit reduction and debt ceiling negotiations. Using Twitter to encourage healthy dialogue between individuals and large corporate entities is nothing new, but establishing predetermined times for concentrated discussion is a trend still growing in the Twitterverse.
The White House office hours grew out of last month’s Twitter “townhall”; people were encouraged to #AskObama questions concerning the economy, healthcare, and the like. The president answered in true Twitter fashion, making him the first president to live-tweet to the nation.

The Doctor Is In: The Marketing Advantages of “Office Hours”

Having established hours when you’ll be available on Twitter has its advantages. Twitter’s integration with mobile phones encourages instantaneous responses and fast-paced tweeting, but a disconnect still exists between users most of the time. For introducing questions, it feels a bit like throwing a fishing line into a murky lake – there’s no telling if anyone is really out there.
Setting up a real-time Q&A session on Twitter guarantees visitors that someone is listening and establishes reliable conversation.
I had a recent nightmare experience with Comcast customer support, as I was forced to speak to numerous androids, and then human representatives who weren’t much more help. I had to call five separate times before finally finding a kind ear, who was able to help me quite easily.
As humans, we have a desperate desire to be heard. Businesses rely on social media because it helps establish community; but communities can’t happen with a single person hollering down a well and waiting for an answer.
A live tweet session is a great way to provide people with live personalized attention without a direct phone call.
Take a look at how others have used established tweet-times to garner interest:

• Fashism hosts “ask the expert” Summer Fridays in which folks tweet their fashion woes and have live celebrity fashionistas respond with style tips.

• Community online shopping site Moxsie introduced #BuyerChat events on Twitter in which followers play the part of virtual shoppers, providing clothing designers with real-time feedback.

• The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum organizes online “Dialogues” – monthly live Twitter discussions with artists in conjunction with in-house museum events.

• Lucky Magazine hosts regular fashion Q&A sessions to help prevent fashion faux pas.

Have Something to Offer

Naturally if you’re hosting a live Twitter event, you’ll want to be prepared; that means taking time to think about the kinds of questions that might be posed, and having answers ready.
Not all questions have simple answers, in which case you may want to use Obama’s technique of having material ready to link to in order to explain more complicated answers (as you can imagine, the debt crisis doesn’t fit easily into 140 characters).

Hashtag Television

Live tweeting in the form of hashtag television is becoming increasingly popular, as TV watchers unite on Twitter to discuss the thrills and triumphs of their favorite characters live with other like-minded devotees.

Originating with the #trumproast, other television shows, such as Glee, have begun displaying their hashtags in the lower corner throughout new episodes.
With tablets and smart phones growing ever more popular, it’s not uncommon for TV viewers to divide attention between the big tube and smaller screens in a show of multi-tasking mastery. Seeing a hashtag during a favorite show prompts the viewer to find out more, even if they aren’t sure what it is (although who mistakes a pound sign for a hashtag anymore?).

Show Them You Care by Being There

Live tweeting is a technique that is still catching on with most companies, but it’s a great idea to consider. Many groups host one-time live Twitter events, but making them a regular routine fosters community and user loyalty. Talking with live individuals reminds users that you are indeed human, and are truly listening!
Make being present a habit, and customers will reward you with devotion and virtual hugs.

http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2011/08/04/live-twitter-office-hours

How to Drive Google Image Search Traffic That's Actually Relevant

My personal blog gets a lot of traffic through Google Image Search. In fact, two of my top 10 organic keyword referrers are “jeff bridges” and “young jeff bridges,” thanks to a post in which I ask the age-old question, who’s the ultimate in “cocky-hot,” a young Jeff Bridges or James Spader circa Pretty in Pink? (Scientists have not yet reached consensus on this issue.)

Well, traffic is traffic, right? Meh – maybe for a blog that has no real business goals. But let’s pretend for a second that I am running a business and have goals to reach. As such, there are a few problems with this traffic:

• It’s irrelevant – People who search Google Images for pictures of Jeff Bridges don’t really care what I have to say, about Jeff Bridges or otherwise probably – they just want to look at Jeff Bridges, or maybe they want to find a picture of him to use on their own site. My blog isn’t about Jeff Bridges or movies or acting or celebrities at all.
• It bounces/doesn’t come back – Once visitors get what they came for and realize that I don’t deliver an endless stream of Jeff Bridges pics, they are unlikely to bookmark my site and put it into their regular reading rotation.

Sometimes people use image search because they just want to steal your cute cat pictures and put them on their own blogs. But sometimes, people are genuinely looking for information (or products) that can be represented visually.
If you’re running a business site/blog, you should always be thinking about how you can build a return audience with your content. If people find your site and convert right away, great! Have a Hershey’s kiss. But often with content marketing, the goal is to form a new relationship, to nudge the prospect down the funnel and one step closer to eventually becoming a customer. So you want most of your visitors, even new visitors who find you through a Google search, to be relevant to your business.
With that in mind, here are three ways you can maximize your Google image search traffic.

Think of Google Image Search as an Easy Win

Several months ago we made a conscious effort to better optimize our site for Google image search rankings. Notice the strong upward trend in traffic from image searches:

The bounce rate for this traffic is also relatively low – in fact it’s lower than our site average. (To look at your own Google image search numbers in Analytics, go to Traffic Sources -> Sources -> Referrals, then click on google.com, then /imgres.)
It’s often easier to drive traffic through image search or video search than plaid old regular search – in part because there’s less competition and in part because the competition is less likely to be properly optimized. So think of image search as an easy win. If you play your cards right you can start to drive traffic from image search pretty quickly. The trick is making sure that traffic is relevant and valuable. That brings us to our next section.

Create Visual Content that Speaks to Leads

When trying to create content that ranks for your SEO keywords, it’s always a good idea to start with those keywords, rather than writing whatever and forcing keywords into your content after the fact. Similarly, when optimizing for image search, start with keywords and go from there.
Many keywords lend themselves naturally to visual content, but almost any kind of content can be enhanced with images. “How to” keywords are especially conducive to image-heavy content, because it’s often easier to illustrate a process than simply explain it. (This is why some build-it-yourself furniture comes with instructions that are all diagrams, no language.) How-to keywords are also great for driving highly relevant long-tail traffic, and when you can provide the perfect answer to a question, you increase your chances of converting that visitor to a customer later on.
Here are some examples of how you can create visual content to support how-to keywords for different business types:

In all these examples, you’re going after traffic that is highly relevant to your business, and you’re using images to help you attract and keep that traffic. The thinking is, even for informational keywords like this that might not directly lead to a sale, you’re raising awareness of your brand and positioning yourself as an authority on the topic at hand. This can only help you down the line. (Hint: Look for opportunities to capture some lead information, for example by prompting blog visitors to sign up for your email list, so you can nurture them with targeted offers. Or set up a remarketing campaign in AdWords, so those visitors continue to see your display ads for the next month or so. If they were looking for information in your field, they may need more help, in the form of products or services, in the near future.)
So how do you make sure that your images show up in the Google results for your target keywords? I was just getting to that!

Use Image File Name and Tags to Your Advantage

A lot of sites don’t properly optimize their images, whether from laziness or ignorance, which makes it easier for you to step in and outrank them. Our internal tests suggest that optimized images actually improve your rankings in regular web search, too.
Google can’t “read” your images yet (and still no flying cars!), so you need to use the text that surrounds the image to tell Google what the picture is “about.” To optimize your images for Google image search, there are two main elements you need to focus on:

• The image file name – When you save your images, use file names that describe the photo and are optimized for the keyword set you’re targeting. In the “how to dress for a job interview” example above, you might save a picture as “mens-suit-for-job-interview.jpg” – notice that this is readable, descriptive text, compared to some meaningless string of numbers like “IMG0009.jpg”
• The alt attribute – When you code an image into your site, you can use the alt attribute to describe the image in text. If someone’s browser won’t display the image, they’ll see the alt text instead. Google can also crawl the alt text to learn what the image looks like. This is a good place to put one of your keywords – ideally, the keyword will actually describe the image accurately! The HTML might look like this: img src="mens-suit-for-job-interview.jpg " alt="job interview appropriate suit". Or you can add it via your content management system – here’s what the field looks like in Drupal:

Secondary elements that could also influence your rankings are the text near the images/on the same page (the caption, surrounding text) and anchor text in links that point to the image or the page with the image.
Remember to apply your keyword research here – your file names and alt attributes should describe the images you’re using, but your choices should also be driven by your SEO goals. If you’re targeting a keyword like “email marketing guide” and all your images are cute cat photos, you’re not really maximizing the relevance factor. Also remember that ads/banners are images – if you’re using display creative on your web pages, don’t forget to optimize those too.
Finally, make sure your images aren’t ugly, distorted, slow to load, or otherwise unwieldy. Here are Google’s recommendations for keeping images user-friendly:

• Good-quality photos appeal to users more than blurry, unclear images. In addition, other webmasters are much more likely to link to a good-quality image, which can increase visits to your site. Crisp, sharp images will also appear better in the thumbnail versions we display in our search results, and may therefore be more likely to be clicked on by users.
• Even if your image appears on several pages on your site, consider creating a standalone landing page for each image, where you can gather all its related information. If you do this, be sure to provide unique information—such as descriptive titles and captions—on each page. You could also enable comments, discussions, or ratings for each picture.
• Not all users scroll to the bottom of a page, so consider putting your images high up on the page where it can be immediately seen.
• Consider structuring your directories so that similar images are saved together. For example, you might have one directory for thumbnails and another for full-size images; or you could create separate directories for each category of images (for example, you could create separate directories for Hawaii, Ghana, and Ireland under your Travel directory). If your site contains adult images, we recommend storing these in one or more directories separate from the rest of the images on your site.
• Specify a width and height for all images. A web browser can begin to render a page even before images are downloaded, provided that it knows the dimensions to wrap non-replaceable elements around. Specifying these dimensions can speed up page loading and improve the user experience. For more information about optimizing your images, see Optimizing Web Graphics on the site Let's Make the Web Faster.

By following these tips, you should see an increase in your Google image search traffic – and it will be quality traffic you can actually capitalize on

http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2013/01/23/google-image-search-traffic

10 Tips for Creating Content on Facebook That Gets the Thumbs Up

With the recent release of our brand new infographic documenting Facebook's failures, I thought I'd write about how you can make sure that you yourself don't have any Facebook face-plants. Here are 10 tips for creating awesome Facebook content that will keep visitors interested and engaged.

1. Post Content that Interests Your Customers

The key to developing a winning fan page that builds fans and pushes your business forward is to post content that genuinely interests your customers or clients. Don't focus solely on you or your business. By providing valuable information to the reader you will build a stronger relationship with current and prospective customers.

Red Bull knows that their energy drink customers are likely to be interested in extreme activities, so they post videos they know customers will enjoy, even if it doesn’t relate to Red Bull directly.

2. Post a Variety of Content

Let’s imagine you own a pet grooming business. On your fan page, you’ll want to share a variety of content like:

• Blog Posts – what’s new and happening at your business? Did Spot the puppy turn 1 this week?
• Photos – in addition to photos of your store, take snap shots of workers and customers. Upload pics from events you’ve attended or hosted, like your canine Best in Show event.
• Press Releases – let customers know about the updates and improvements you’ve made
• Videos – do I need to even tell you how many adorable kitten videos are on the web?

3. End Every Post With a Question

I hate to sound like a scrooge, but the truth is that people are pretty self-absorbed. Fan page visitors are much more likely to pay attention and respond to your posts if you address them personally and encourage them to get involved.
Pairing your posts with questions is a great way to accomplish this. You’ll get more engagement and better response if you post a link with a question or call to action, rather than just posting a link solo. Invite conversation whenever possible, with each post you do.

Ben & Jerry know how to get their customers chatting.
To go along with our pet grooming example, you might post a link to an article with “Five Tips for Cutting Your Dog’s Nails at Home” (trust me, this is not easy). Include a question with the link, such as “Do you have any special tricks for keeping your dog relaxed?”

4. Don’t Post Too Frequently

According to a research study by the University of Colorado Denver Business School, the No.1 reason people dump Facebook friends is that they get annoyed being continuously bombarded with useless posts (if you are looking to lower your friend count, just download a couple of Zynga games and you’ll be golden).
Plastering a fan’s news feed won’t make them like you any more. Make each post count!

5. Allow Fans to Write on Your Wall

This might go without saying, but you really need to enable visitors to write on your wall. Disabling this feature means you might as well not have a fan page at all, since the whole point of being on Facebook is to get into dialogue with customers.

6. Don’t Share Twitter Posts on Your Facebook Page

You’re talking to different audiences with different needs and expectations. It’s fine to have an announcement you want to share across Facebook and Twitter, but re-write it accordingly. And definitely remove the #&@s or people might think you’re saying some not-so-nice things.

7. Use Contests, But Use Them in Moderation

Of course we can’t forget about contests, the bread and butter of fan pages. Contests are great, but they should be a fun and exciting event, not the norm.
Pumpkin coffee and apple cider are awesome reminders of fall because you can’t get them just any day of the year. Similarly, you shouldn’t be hosting contests so often that they lose their edge.

8. Get Creative With the Contests

Try an essay, photo, or video contest to get a higher level of engagement with fans. It’s great to incorporate seasonal events, like a “Best Pumpkin Carving” or “Cutest Pet Costume” contest for Halloween. The Wildfire web application is a great tool for making interactive content like contests, quizzes, and surveys.

Boo the adorable dog would win any contest. Because he is just too adorable.
If you run a photo contest, tag your customers so that the post appears on their wall too. That way you’re furthering your sphere of influence by reaching out to friends of your fans.

9. Try Selecting a Monthly Topic

One idea in attempts to keep fans engaged is to select a different topic for each month. Talk about and post links to sites that cover that topic.
Having a different topic you address each month demonstrates that you have a continuous online presence, making you appear much more interesting (even if deep down you are incredibly dull). Which brings us to our final tip…

10. Be Interesting!

After I got a PS3, I decided to follow the @AskPlaystation feed, which provides fascinating insight into topics such as how to clean your PS3 and ways to keep it ventilated. OK, to be fair, it is a customer support feed. But boy-howdy is it boring.

Fascinating stuff.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to look at a boring Facebook page. There are some environments where an air of professionalism is necessary, but that attitude will only come off as dull on Facebook.
Hopefully these tips got you thinking about ways to generate interesting and engaging content with your Facebook fans! Spread the love.
What are your tips and tricks for creating great content on Facebook?

http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2011/10/19/10-facebook-tips-for-content

Guide to Using Social Media for Marketing

Social media marketing is a powerful tool for small business looking to further their reach and interact with customers. If implemented correctly, marketing with social media can bring remarkable success to your business.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing, or SMM, is a form of internet marketing that implements various social media networks in order to achieve marketing communication and branding goals. Social media marketing primarily covers activities involving social sharing of content, videos, and images for marketing purposes.
At WordStream, we’ve created this guide to provide you with the social media marketing training you need to better your business. We want to give small businesses on short budgets an alternative to hiring a social media marketing agency or paying for social media marketing services.
With our Social Media Marketing 101 Guide below, you can begin developing your own social media marketing expert plan.

Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses: Learn Social Media Marketing 101

This education guide gives a basic overview on how to use social media for marketing, serving as a social media marketing for dummies manual. Read to learn about how to reap the benefits of using social media in marketing.

Social Media and Marketing: Start With a Plan

Before you begin creating social media marketing campaigns, consider your business’ goals. Starting a social media marketing campaign without a plan in mind is like wandering through a forest without a map—you’ll only end up lost.
Create a social media marketing plan and brainstorm about your goals: what are you hoping to achieve through social media marketing? Who is your target audience? Where would your target audience hang out and how would they use social media? What message do you want to send to your audience with social media marketing?

Social Media for Marketing: Developing Your Goals

Social media marketing can help with a number of goals, such as:

• Website traffic
• Conversions
• Brand awareness
• Creating a brand identity and positive brand association
• Communication and interaction with key audiences

Best Social Media Marketing Tips: Learn Marketing with Social Media

Here are some social media marketing tips to keep you on the right track across all your social media campaigns.

• Planning – As discussed previously, building a social media marketing plan is essential. Consider keyword research and brainstorm content ideas that will interest your target audience.
• Content is King — Consistent with other areas of online marketing, content reigns king when it comes to social media marketing. Make sure you are offering valuable information that your ideal customers will find interesting. Create a variety of content by implementing images, videos, and infographics in addition to classic text-based content.
• Consistent Brand Image — Using social media for marketing enables your business to project your brand image across a variety of different social media platforms. While each platform has its own unique environment and voice, your business’ core identity should stay consistent.
• Blog — Blogging is a great social media marketing tool that lets you share a wide array of information and content with readers. Your company blog can also serve as your social media marketing blog, in which you blog about your recent social media efforts, contests, and events.
• Links — While using social media for marketing relies primarily on your business sharing its own unique, original content to gain followers, fans, and devotees, it’s also great to link to outside articles as well. If other sources provide great, valuable information you think your target audience will enjoy, don’t be shy about linking to them. Linking to outside sources improves trust and reliability, and you may even get some links in return.
• Track Competitors — It’s always important to keep an eye on competitors—they can provide valuable data for keyword research, where to get industry-related links, and other social media marketing insight. If your competitors are using a certain social media marketing technique that seems to be working for them, do the same thing, but do it better!
• Measure Success with Analytics —You can’t determine the success of your social media marketing strategies without tracking data. Google Analytics can be used as a great social media marketing tool that will help you measure your triumphant social media marketing techniques, as well as determine which strategies are better off abandoned. Attach tracking tags to your social media marketing campaigns so that you can properly monitor them.

How to Use Social Media for Marketing: Know Your Platform

We’ve put together a brief overview on how to use social media for marketing according to each platform’s unique environment. Various social media marketing sites will require different techniques, so develop a unique strategy tailored for each platform.
Facebook
Facebook’s casual, friendly environment requires an active social media marketing strategy that begins with creating a Facebook Business Fan Page. You will want to pay careful attention to layout, as the visual component is a key aspect of the Facebook experience. Social media marketing for business pages revolves around furthering your conversation with audiences by posting industry-related articles, images, videos, etc.
Facebook is a place people go to relax and chat with friends, so keep your tone light and friendly.
Google+
Google+ is the new Facebook competitor, and it promotes the same fun, casual atmosphere. On Google+ you can upload and share photos, videos, links, and view all your +1s. Also take advantage of Google+ circles, which allow you to segment your followers into smaller groups, enabling you to share information with some followers while barring others. For example, you might try creating a “super-fan” circle, and share special discounts and exclusive offers only with that group.
You can also try hosting video conferences with Hangouts and experiment using the Hangout feature in some fun, creative ways. Some social media marketing ideas: if you're a salon, host a how-to session on how to braid your hair. If you own a local bookstore, try offering author video chats.
Pinterest
Pinterest is the latest in social media marketing trends. Pinterest’s image-centered platform is ideal for retail, but anyone can benefit from using Pinterest for social media purposes.
Pinterest allows small businesses to showcase their own product offerings while also developing their own brand’s personality with some unique pinboards.
Twitter
Twitter is the social media marketing tool that lets you broadcast your updates across the web. Follow tweeters in your industry or related fields, and you should gain a steady stream of followers in return.
Mix up your official-related tweets about specials, discounts, and news updates with some fun and quirky tweets interspersed. Be sure to retweet when a customer has something nice to say about you, and don’t forget answer people’s questions when possible. Using Twitter as a social media marketing tool revolves around dialog and communication, so be sure to interact as much as possible
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the more professional social media marketing sites. LinkedIn Groups is a great venue for entering into a professional dialog with people in similar industries and provides a place to share content with like-minded individuals.
Encourage customers or clients to give your business a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile. Recommendations makes your business appear more credible and reliable for new customers. Also browse the Questions section of LinkedIn; providing answers helps you get established and earns trust.
YouTube
YouTube is the number one place for creating video content, with can be an incredibly powerful social media marketing tool. Many businesses try to create video content with the aim of having their video “go viral,” but in reality those chances are pretty slim. Instead, focus on creating useful, instructive “how-to” videos.
Location-Based Social Media Tools
Social media platforms like Yelp, FourSquare, and Level Up are great for brick and mortar businesses looking to implement marketing social media. Register on these sites to claim your location spot, and then consider extra incentives such as check-in rewards or special discounts.
Reddit
Reddit, or similar social media platforms such as Stumble Upon or Digg, are ideal for sharing compelling content. With over 2 billion page views a month, Reddit has incredible social media marketing potential, but marketers should be warned that only truly unique, interesting content will be welcomed. Posting on Reddit is playing with fire—submit spammy or overtly sales-focused content and your business could get berated by this extremely tech-savvy community.
If you have content you believe the Reddit community (majority is young, geeky, liberal, and internet-obsessed) would enjoy, you could reap tremendous benefits and earn valuable traffic.
Using social media in marketing does more than improve site traffic and help businesses reach more customers; it provides a valuable venue for better understanding and learning from your target audiences. Hopefully this guide has helped you better understand how using social media for marketing can improve your business.
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