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/

How to determine what’s working in your social media campaign

Even though social media has been around for a quite a while and is still trending, many digital marketers are struggling with how to measure the ROI of their social media campaign. This question gets asked a lot, even though many large and small organizations have already integrated this communication medium into their traditional marketing efforts.
Naturally, it’s common sense that businesses want to see if their social media campaign is helping them reach their goals. Social media is all about the community which you do your business with, and actually has little to do with “media”. So in truth, if you are measuring your social media campaign, it must focus on and reveal insight about the members of your community and how engagement with them impacts your business. Social media is a medium that works because it allows people to communicate with each other and it’s not about disruptive communication where you don’t have a say.
With social media it is key to continuously evaluate and monitor what people are talking about that is relevant to your company and respond to them appropriately. There are hundreds of tools available that you can use to measure basically everything regarding your social media campaign, but in reality it’s a waste of resources, time, and money if you fail to monitor only selective metrics that matter to you.
There are many metrics you can use to measure your campaign and many of the tools that measure this will have their own metrics, but which actually matters? Find below a couple of metrics that I use as a baseline for all my social media campaigns.
Social media measurement metrics
Engagement: How many comments or replies are generated by the updates and posts that you make? This is a key metric that will reveal the level of interaction that will show you what content works and what doesn’t. Tracking and analysing the responses you receive from your posts, tweets, and status updates will give you a view of which topics are the most effective in engaging with your target market/community. By measuring this, you can adjust your content plan to get the best engagement.
Number of shares: How many shares do your updates and post receive? This metric takes advantage of the fact that each update and post that you make to your community is the start of a conversation or share on another network. It can gain momentum if your content gets shared outside of your direct network.
Reach: What is the size of your network and how many people are you reaching with your updates? Your target audience consists of the people who complete an action or interact directly with your brand. If you combine reach with engagement, it can allow you to prepare magnetic content that has the ability to go viral. If you have a bigger reach, you have the potential that your updates can turn into a snowball and increase your exposure.
Sentiment analysis: What are the emotions expressed by your network in regards to your updates and posts? This metric isn’t always easy to measure and can be hidden by your social media efforts, but there are many tools (like socialmention.com) where you can view how people feel about your business and brand.
It isn’t always easy to measure the success of your social media marketing strategy, but using these metrics as a baseline in your reporting will give you a good indication of what is working and what is not

http://memeburn.com/2013/04/how-to-determine-whats-working-in-your-social-media-campaign/

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

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

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

The Secrets of What Makes a Product Go Viral

image credit: shutterstock.com

Ten years ago, had you ever heard of the hand sanitizer Purell? It existed, but nobody really used it. Then one day, it was everywhere. Grocery stores placed dispensers at the door, nail salons gave it to clients, and people started carrying travel size bottles in their bags. With little advertising, how did Purell catch on?

Jonah Berger, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, has dedicated his career to answering that question. As he explains in his new book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On (Simon & Schuster, 2013), every viral product has six key features in common -- features that can be replicated to make any product go viral.

"People often think that contagious products just get lucky," Berger says. "But it's not luck and it’s not random. It's science."

According to Berger's research, specific circumstances and attributes empower consumers to share a given product. Any business can leverage those insights to create a viral hit. "You don't need a huge advertising budget," Berger says.

Related: Creative Problem-Solving Strategies to Test Your Business Idea

As many as half of consumers' purchasing decisions are driven by word of mouth marketing -- it's trustworthy and far more targeted than traditional advertising. Plus, the majority of those interactions happen offline, where advertisements can't reach. "Authenticity is a big reason word of mouth impacts behavior," Berger says.

To create a viral product that consumers are inspired to share authentically, incorporate these key elements.

1. Social currency. Consumers are more likely to adopt a product if it makes them feel special or ahead of the curve. For example, Gilt's exclusive sales helped it become one of the hottest online shopping sites.

2. Triggers. Products that catch on become part of our everyday lives, so successful products create reasons and reminders to return on a regular basis. For example, Facebook and Twitter drive you back to their sites every time they email you to say you have a new message or mention.

3. Emotional impact. People tend to evangelize a product if it affected them emotionally, whether it solved a stressful problem or brightened a bad day. For example, if a Buzzfeed article makes you laugh, you’ll likely share it with friends who need a lift.

4. Visibility. Giving a product a distinctive feature, such as a standout logo or color, helps consumers notice when others are using it. For example, you immediately recognize iPods because Apple made the headphones white when other companies all used black.

5. Practical value. A truly useful product that helps the user become more effective is more likely to be recommended often. For example, Evernote is very good at helping users remember and organize information, so it's often recommended for research.

6. Stories. If people are going to share your product, they need to be able to tell its story. That can be as simple as a clear statement about what the product does, or as complicated as a really interesting origin story. For example, people who buy TOMS shoes love telling others how one pair is donated for every pair you buy.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226114#ixzz2OH8rkALM

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.
Looking for better results? Pay-per-click marketing is a growing form of online advertising that continues to be very successfully for small and medium sized businesses. Learn about PPC and try WordStream's PPC Optimization software for free today!

http://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing

5 Internet Marketing Tips For Getting Massive Readership

Internet marketing tips are usually very generic. When I first started out with Internet marketing I read thousands of articles with almost all of them giving conflicting advice. So when I finally go through all of the bad advice, good advice and technical jargon, I started to see what was actually working and what was not.

One of the best things about Internet marketing is the fact that there are an infinite amount of niches that you can choose from. But not every method is going to work for every niche. Here are 5 Internet marketing tips that will work for every niche.

1. Attach NoFollows To Affiliate Links

Whether you're using Clickbank, Shareasale, Amazon or Ebay attach a nofollow attribute to your affiliate links. If you're like me, you probably have at least 5-6 advertisements on your blog posts or website pages at a time. This can be confusing to the Googlebots when they come to your site. When you attach a nofollow attribute to your links you will tell the bots that you're not trying to rank the linked websites.

When you have dofollows attached to your links the bots are going to see affiliate links the same way they see any internal backlinks that you put on the page. If you don't have a nofollow tag the bots will also leave your site. Put these tags on any links that will be leaving your website to keep the bots indexing your posts.

Here is an example of a link and how to apply the nofollow tag:
“<a href=”/youraffiliatelink.com” rel=”nofollow”>anchortext</a>

2. Use Automation Software Carefully

Submission software can be great tools, but they can also be the reason that your site not ranking properly. I use SENuke XCR, Rankbuilder NEO and No Hands SEO every day, but I know how to use them. There are a ton of marketers that get these software programs and blast away at their money sites.

If you use SEO software, make sure that you actually know how to use them. Building links too fast can get you penalized by the search engines. If you use this software too quickly, you can even get your website banned. Yes, these tools can help get you ranked, but they can also ruin weeks or even years of work.

If you're going to use these tools, make sure that you are using original content and that you're using them on your tiered backlink sites.

3. Use Article Marketing On Web 2.0 Sites

Web 2.0 sites like Hubpages, Squidoo, Blogger, Yahoo Voices and Wordpress are some of the best platforms for building backlinks. There are a lot of Internet marketers that will tell you article marketing is dead. This is simply not true. How can content be king, but article marketing is dead? That doesn't make any sense.

Article directories such as Ezines are dead, but Web 2.0 sites are thriving. One of the best ways to get readership is to do a search for your title in the “Search” bar of sites like Hubpages and Squidoo. You want the title to be completely original. On Squidoo, you will get a “Congratulations! Build A Lens On This Topic” message when your title is completely original. Don't use rehashed titles for your lens or Hubpage articles.

4. Build Tiered Backlinks

Back in the mid 2000s, link wheels were king. Now that Google and Bing have discovered ways to track link wheels, tiered backlink structures are the new way to go. You can still do massive link wheels that are impossible to track by the search engines, but they take a lot of time to create.

Tiered backlinks basically mean that you have 5-10 websites pointing back to your money site. These are your 1^st tier sites. Then you have 15-20 links pointing back to your 1^st tier for a 2^nd tier. And so on and so on.

Once you have these tiers in place you will start to see your website climbing in the ranks very quickly. The key is to have original and readable content. The Best Spinner is great for spinning original content and putting it up on tiered backlink sites.

5. Don't Focus Too Much On Social Media

I know this goes against everything that you have heard, but in my humble opinion, social media is not as important as organic search results. Sure, somebody might see your Twitter post and go check out your new blog post, but isn't more likely that they would click on the first page of the Google SERPs if your site was there?

Social media is important, but it's not the end-all to Internet marketing. Focus more on creating great content. If you have great content, somebody is going to link to it, thus doing your social media for you.

http://bestseotoolsreviewed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/internet-marketing-tips-for-getting-massive-readership.html

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/

Free Ezine Advertising That Works!

One of the best ways to get free traffic to your site, is to write articles for ezines. Now before you shudder and click away, it isn't that hard to write a good article. If you've got a bout of writers block, just search for info related to the subject you want to write about, then re-write it in YOUR OWN words and style, do not copy. Your article needs to be around 500 - 700 words, with short paragraphs, 5 or 6 sentences. DON'T try and disguise an advert as an article and forget about putting in your affiliate links, publishers will delete it straight away, if you want to use this approach to promote an affiliate program, you should really get your own domain as it looks more professional. Once you have put your masterpiece together, leave it a day, then come back to it and re-read it, you'll be surprised what other nuggets of info pop out after a nights sleep, and how many errors seem to jump out at you. When you're sure your article is ready, run it through a spell checker and format it to 55 - 60 characters per line so the publisher can just cut-n-paste into their ezine. Don't forget to put your resource box at the bottom of the article! This is what's going to get you a ton of free traffic to your site after all. Believe me folks, just one half decent article can get you alot of free traffic, I remember one article I wrote was published in a ezine that had a circulation of 500,000, if I wanted to pay for advertising in this particular ezine it would have cost me over $400! Not only does this technique save you money, it also gives you credability, and alot of ezines turn your articles into web pages that will remain there for years to come. Get published, get credibility, get free traffic for years to come! I think that's worth a little effort don't you?

5 Internet Marketing Tips for Newbies

Unlike the offline world, where advertising is very effective, content rules the internet. You'll develop a more effective marketing campaign when you focus on strategies centered around developing content for your site.

Below are some of my most effective ways to market online, and I do it all for free.

1. Search Engines
Before you even develop your website, the first thing you should do is focus on the search engines. Organic, i.e. free search engine listings that are highly ranked, will get you far more traffic than using any kind of advertising.

The most important thing you should do here is find the right keywords. You can do this by using any of the pay per click search tools. You can also download a free tool like Good Keywords, http://www.goodkeywords.com

2. Articles
Writing articles not only allows you to brand yourself as an expert, it helps you to create original content for your website. The more quality content pages you have in your site, the higher it will rank in the search engines, and you will also create a viral marketing strategy for your business.

3. Press Releases
Press releases are news. Just like the offline world, where press releases are more effective than advertising, so too are they more effective online.

You should remember to focus on news about your business. Don't make your release a glorified sales letter. It will get rejected.

A simple search for press release writing will help you find resources to help you write an effective press release.

Press releases, like articles, are spider, or search engine food. The search engines love them, and a good release can be very viral.

4. Blogs/RSS
Blogging is the latest craze online. It's a very effective way to promote your business not only because of RSS, but because you can quickly and easily create content without knowing HTML, and with trackback, it has its own built in link building strategy.

RSS is nothing more than a very search engine friendly code that allows you to syndicate your content to other websites, or to be read in RSS readers.

With trackbacks, you can link back to other sites and build your links. This raises your search engine rankings.

5. Free reports
Free reports, like blogs, articles, and press releases, not only allow you to build a content strategy for your website, but you will also create a viral marketing strategy for your site.

A viral marketing strategy is very important because it's mainly passive. If you create good content, your content will be recommended by others. One person reads your content and recommends it to someone else, and before you know it, your content is all over the internet. The more entries you have in the search engines, the more likely you are to be found by your potential customers.

The point is, if you develop an effective content and search engine strategy for your business, you will get your message out a lot faster. Potential customers will find you, and they'll be eager for what you sell because they were already looking for you.

Top-selling author, Brett McFall, reveals how you too can start your own internet business - FREE LIVE TRAINING

Some unbelieveable news has arrived for all those serious about making a living online. Australian Marketing Guru, Brett McFall is holding a 3 Day Seminar which CANNOT be missed by anyone serious about making money online!

I have my place registered already and AMAZINGLY IT'S FREE!!!!! Yes you read that right FREE. As well as this, everyone who attends will receive a $2000 AUD holiday ABSOLUTLY FREE.

Click on the link below to learn more or go directly to the site by clicking on the link below and reserve your place befre the event is SOLD OUT. The last event this size was 2010!

http://tiny.cc/e93euw

Why You Need A Local Search Strategy

Approximately four years ago, Google made a major change in their search engine results page by introducing a “Universal Search” system that blended listings with video, images and news results along with the sites it gathered from crawling web pages. Universal Search also accommodated the increase in searches for location-specific information. Instead of just searching “restaurants”, many people were searching “restaurants Louisville KY.” Search engines tested this new interest trend by placing a map and local listings at the top of the results page. Heat map reports showing how users absorb a search results page implied that users paid a good deal of attention to the map listings at the top of the page.

 

This research also indicates that users interact with map listings and organic search results more frequently than the paid ads. This change prompted Google to prioritize local search to the top of the search results page, and in time most engines followed suit.

 

Before the rise of local search, users had to enter a search term plus a geo-modifier (e.g., Louisville, Kentucky, 40299) in order to get location-specific search results. Today’s search algorithms take into account the IP address of the user, showing location-targeted results without the searcher requesting it. A search for just “dentists” from a computer in Louisville will pull up dental offices in the Louisville, KY area along with the general information pages.

 

Google experimented with how many local search listings to display in order to maximize user experience. Originally, only three local search listing results were displayed as flags next to the area map. Google tried increasing local map listings to a 10-pack, but found that searchers did not like how far down the page that moved organic search results. Research indicated that local searchers wanted a selection of map listings, but also valued the organic search listings. This led to the 7-pack format, which presented seven listings at the top of the search page.

 

The most recent iteration of Google’s local search display is called “Place Search.” This format combines the organic listings with local map listings and positions the map on the right panel. There is also an option to see only local listings by clicking the “Places” link in the left-hand panel. The latest iteration personalizes local search by allowing users to select their location to see local listings in any area, not just their current location. This change puts even more emphasis on local search results by showing more robust listings with pictures, meta descriptions and review quotes.

 

Bing and Yahoo have followed Google into local search marketing. However, all local search does not work the same and they have different algorithms to determine business rank. Obviously, you get more traffic if you are ranked on the first page of local search. To obtain a high ranking, you must build out your business listing using geotags, reviews, citations, product and service keywords and additional information.

 

http://www.sitepronews.com/2011/08/18/why-you-need-a-local-search-strategy/

Seven Ways to Effectively Use Twitter

I started using Twitter in earnest in January 2012. Since that time, I’ve learned a few tips that I have found very helpful. Hopefully, you will find some of these useful as well.

1. Re-Tweet (RT)

There is nothing more flattering than someone re-tweeting what you’ve tweeted. It fact, the more re-tweets you receive for a particular tweet, the better you feel. This is the case for others as well. I recommend that you pick a good category and look at tweets from others there. Then, re-tweet (RT) tweets that are particularly interesting to you. For example, I like to look at what people are saying under the category of “leadership.” So, I regularly do a search for #leadership in Twitter. This lets me see all the tweets that include #leadership. I then RT the ones I like. The tweet shows up in my “stream” and it lets the individual know that I re-tweeted their tweet.

It is an easy way to get started. Searching on #leadership allows me to RT people whom I may not currently be following or who may not be following me. By re-tweeting people I’m not following, I occasionally pick up new followers or I start to follow new people because I like their tweets. I usually pick one day a week to do my RTs. I only do about 2 or 3 max a day, separated by a few hours.

2. Hashtags (#) are Your Friend

The hashtag (#) is an awesome feature in Twitter. Whenever you do a tweet, try to include a category you would like your tweet to show up under. Sticking with my example from above, I regularly tweet about leadership and management. So, my tweets include #leadership or #management or both. This allows my tweets to show up whenever people search on these hashtags.

Remember, this allows people to see your tweets even if they are not following you. I pick up about 20 to 30 new followers a week because people read my tweets in these categories. During the 2012 presidential election, I tweeted a couple of non-partisan tweets about presidential leadership and included a hashtag similar to #2012presidential. I tried to be as neutral as possible so as not to offend anyone from either party, as my intent was to share my thoughts on leadership in general. My tweet was viewed by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, because that category was greatly watched at the time. So, hashtags, if used properly, can be a powerful friend and get your tweets viewed by many.

 

3. Tweet Links to Articles You Are Reading Online

This is very easy. As you read articles online, there is a Twitter “tweet” button that allows you to tweet the article, including a link. This is by far the easiest, possibly most effective way to tweet about things that are meaningful to you and others. Pressing the Twitter tweet button as you read online articles automatically formats the tweet so that it is 140 characters or less. I then add my hashtag or hashtags (e.g., #leadership, #management, #quotes, etc.) and I’m done.

 

4. Quotes

I like to tweet quotes about 2 to 3 times a week. You can find good quotes under #quotes (or by using Google). I like to tweet original quotes every so often. This gives me a good sense for how a particular topic will resonate with people before I write an article or blog about it.

 

5. Try Not to Spam Your Followers With too Many Tweets at a Time

Try not to do more than one tweet per 3 to 4 hours. I was once following a person who tweeted 8 to 10 tweets back-to-back multiple times a day. I finally had to stop following the person because the tweets were more like spam.

 

6. Become an Expert in a Category or Two

I recommend tweeting about something you are passionate about and then including a hashtag for that category. Over time, people will see that you are regularly showing up under that category and before you know it, you are considered an expert.

 

7. In General, Have Fun

Lastly, have fun. Twitter is an amazing social networking tool and I have so much fun with it. I don’t take myself too seriously and that keeps it fun. Don’t worry if some followers stop following you, because people do that for various reasons. Others will follow you – especially if you stay true and passionate about your subject matter.

 

http://www.sitepronews.com/2013/03/08/seven-ways-to-effectively-use-twitter/

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/