3 Guidelines to Make Sense of Social Media Measurement

Social promotions can be fruitful only when you are doing it the right way. But the catch is somewhere else. As the social networking sphere is open and free, whatever we do might just seem useful. And quite naturally, some actions might eventually turn out to be more harmful to your business than doing any good. This is why every digital media marketing manager must make an effort to use a series of analytical tools to calculate the success quotient of the strategies that he has deployed, and also to ensure that the level of engagement is not being damaged at any point in time.

Social media measurement can't be treated as a secondary activity in any digital media strategy. Instead, it must be treated as one of the most important aspects of any online marketing plan. However, when into social media measurement, care must be take that you aren't doing it the wrong way. If social media efforts aren't measured accurately, quite naturally, you will get wrong results. And these misinterpreted results might trigger misguided social actions. Either the overall reputation of a brand can be damaged almost overnight, or it will become impossible to make any good with whatever is socially done in the future. Quite interestingly, damage control measures seem to be useless in most cases, as the level of damage is rather profound.

Social media monitoring and measurement of success ratio is possible if you are getting a few basics right. Though, there aren't any prefixed guidelines for the procedure, yet experts believe most of us can get it right if we are doing 3 simple things simultaneously. And believe me folks, I did it their way, and was pretty satisfied with the results.

So I thought it will be good if I can share these 3 pointers with you guys today. They are given below.

When measuring social media activities, make sure you are not pulling out old records and analyzing the same. This will be a wastage of time. You need to work on recent data, and create fresh results. The same reports could be further analyzed to draw a variety of important conclusions.
Double-check each data from at least two different sources. This will provide insurance to the results that come out.
Use at least a couple of social media measurement tools together, to develop a more comprehensive report.

Follow these 3 pointers, and I guess you can create a pretty useful social media activity report.

Mark Weyland is a social media measurement tool developer and a digital media evangelist. He's currently based in Michigan.

View the original article here

Do You Have A Social Media Monitoring Policy In Your Company?

A single rotten apple in a barrel can spoil the rest if it is not taken out. The case of online brand feedback is somewhat similar. One negative sentiment is enough to throw your brand out of the good books of customers. It may be a comment in a blog post, or a Tweet or a Facebook status update or anything that could damage your company's online social reputation. But in a minute there are about a million activities happening in the web and how on Earth do you expect to find that single comment or Tweet that damages your reputation. Well this is where social media monitoring works magic. It is essential that you keep track of whatever activity or online event that makes a reference to your brand.

So how do you keep track of online reputation of your company or brand? Well it is a 6 step procedure which includes:

1. Find out what is spoken about your brand

Just like you often search your name in Google to see what interesting results pop up, try with your brand name or the product your company offers. Search engines flush out almost everything related to your search keyword. Simple search is not enough; try different related keywords as you do not possible want to miss out on any info.

2. Aggregate the obtained information

You can use various custom tools to identify and group similar sentiments and feedbacks for your brand or its services. You can also make use of several commercial feed readers to effectively aggregate information based on set priority or preference. Aggregating data is important to learn which needs your attention immediately or what you can use to promote your business.

3. Inform the right personnel

The gathered data should be passed onto the respective departments wherein the concerns reported in a particular area are addressed by the best personnel in that department. There are various social media monitoring tools allow ticketing, delegation systems, etc and make sure that whenever necessary an employee from any department can be made a part of the process.

4. Replying with solutions

This is the area where your brains have to work the most. As far as positive comments are concerned a show of appreciation with a simple "Thank You" phrase is more than enough to let the customers know that you value them. However when responding to negative sentiments, then only skilled executives should be allowed to respond to the concerns reported in whatever form whether it be comments or Tweets or e-mail or even direct conversation via telephone or face-to-face ordeal.

5. Follow up to replies

Do not think that once you have responded to comments, it is all over. You may have to answer further questions or queries regarding your solutions or may have to present a different version of the solution to customers who are yet to understand your previous version. You need to employ the services of a powerful monitoring tool to help you keep track of such conversational sequences.

6. Save the comments for future

Once you feel that you have resolved the concerns and rectified the negative sentiments propagated about your brand, then it is important to make a note of the entire process from the registry of sentiment to the rectification so as to help in taking future decisions regarding your brand's growth. Such social feedbacks are effective in pattern tracking and also prove vital for training support staff as to how to respond to a similar event in future.

Hope you were not bored by that long section of how to maintain your brand's existence on the internet. If you did feel so, then just think of how worthy that few minutes would be if you did what was said in my blog. Marketing and managerial Guru's will definitely understand the value of social media monitoring and it is wise if you could also follow suit.

Social Defender is all-in-one social media monitoring tool allows you to manage your multiple social media networks from a single login.

View the original article here

How Social Media Marketing Can Boost Your Sales

It was only a matter of time before businesses incorporated social media tactics into their internet marketing plan after social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter took the world by storm. Pessimists contended before that the results of social marketing were not measurable. That was before. Now, any social media marketing agency can outline metrics that are tangible, concrete and quantitatively and qualitatively measurable.

Just recently, another breakthrough was achieved by social marketing which will get any social media company excited. According to a report, 36% of consumers who follow a brand in social platforms were prompted to try new products after seeing updates from the company, while 18% of the US market bought a particular product or availed of a specific service because their friends are following them on their social accounts.

What does this mean? This means that SMM agency with a carefully thought of plan and tactics can now bring greater value to businesses beyond customer engagement and brand building. This form of online marketing can now actually impact a business' bottom line through real monetary profits.

Leveraging on Consumers' Tendency to Purchase Spontaneously

It happens to everyone. You're walking in the mall, passing window stores without really intending to buy anything. Then something catches your eye. So, you go inside the store just to "ask." But the sales pitch is just so good. So, you take out your wallet and the next thing you know, you're already in the cashier paying for something without contemplating on your purchase.

Apparently, a social media company can take advantage of this shoppers' nature to buy impulsively. Statistics reveals that 22% of people who are following brands through their social networks were prompted to buy something spontaneously. There's more good news. Fifteen percent said they spend more than they intended because they were influenced by social networking sites.

Increase Store Foot Traffic

Many consumers go to a mall without really a store or a brand in mind. They will walk around and check out several stores before making their decision.

Now, according to research, 44% of consumers with social networks are influenced by social sites when choosing which store to go to. Further, online reviews appearing in blogs and other social channels shaped the purchasing behavior of 43% of social site users. This basically means that a SMM agency can now influence brand preference in the very early stages of the decision making process of consumers.

At the onset, there were a lot of doubts as to how a social media company can contribute to the overall online marketing strategy of a brand. Today, with solid quantitative proofs such as those mentioned above, the business case for SMM is becoming stronger and if these trends continue, social marketing tactics will soon be indispensable.

Author is an Internet marketing expert and wants to share his knowledge with people who are about to hire a social media company NY, New York for their business. He has also given words to many articles where one can find the latest trends popular in SEO and social media marketing companies.

View the original article here

The Social Media War

Ever since social media has emerged as the socializing tool on the internet, it has become the heartbeat of the internet. Unlike the old days people connect to the internet for the purpose of visiting these blooming social networks in order to connect and chat with friends, or share life events, participate in various fun loving activities or even in fruitful discussions to share their views. In fact social networks have revolutionized our lives by incorporating all the basic elements of a person's social life in one place. This social networking trend has really attracted the masses across the globe and no such trend has seen such a drastic impact on people which spread its wings all over the world.

Therefore, several tech savvy firms as well as certain group of individuals have sensed this opportunity to cater this vast social market with innumerable audience. The best part was that there was no specific market segmentation or consumer demographics required to launch these networks since most of them cater the needs of all consumer segments. Later on changes were being made to target people with specific needs and interests that too were done to gain a competitive edge in this tug of war.

Now that the internet has become more of a social media hub, comprising of a wide range of social networks, there is an intense competition which has rather turned into a social media war. These networks are trying each and every tactic to excel in this war and defeat their competitor. Consider the top two ruling social networks-Facebook and G+. In order to put the other down, every other day we come to know about some drastic changes made by either of them in their networking portal. This has been happening since quite a long time now. Now what the result is? Have they succeeded in their voracious efforts? I don't think so!

Although they have managed to attract a huge number of users from all over the world but in the lust to take market share, they are destroying the consumer experience. Many Facebook users are no more interested in Facebook activities calling them boring and dull. Even the new timeline addition on Facebook did not receive a good welcome from many of the Facebook users which resulted in the adoption of Facebook timeline removal widget, widely supported by its competitor's browser Google chrome.

Similarly on the other hand Google+ also did not have enough support from social networking freaks apart from some pro Google geeks. Google+ is in fact still struggling to reach the top notch when other new networks such as Pinterest and LinkdIn have already grabbed the top positions following Facebook.

This social war does not seem to end in the near future with the emergence of more social networks with better socializing options and innovative ideas. Thus consumers are also more conscious of their social networking choice according to their specific needs.

I wrote this article as my own opinion and observation. However I encourage your inputs and opinions on the topic.

View the original article here

Social Media Marketing - Drive Traffic With Twitter? Absolutely, YES You Can! Really!

Twitter moves at an amazing speed. The more followers you have on Twitter, the faster that stream is going to fly by. It is amazing the diversity of people that will follow you and watch your tweets.

You want to make sure that you connect your blog to your Twitter account. It's one of the ways that you're going to automatically drive traffic. Each time you make a post on your blog, you can have it tweet the post has been made. One of the many ways to drive traffic back to your blog.

Something many people don't take advantage of is to post your tweet more than once. Now remember we said that the Twitter stream can fly by very quickly. There is an excellent chance that most of your followers will not have seen the original tweet that came out when you initially created your blog post. You need to go back and tweet about it again.

Tweet about it on different days,Tweet about it at different times of day.

One of the things that I like to do is to tweet for five consecutive days after I have made the blog post, but at a different time of day each time.

You want to use your keywords on your Twitter account. Plus use those same keywords to listen to other people on Twitter. When you "listen" to the tweets of other people you will find conversations around your business topics. You can then go in and

comment,answer questions, provide a resource or support someone in getting something done.

You also must remember to thank all of those people who share your tweets; who re-tweet your tweets. We all like to be appreciated, we all like to be thanked for things that we do. When you thank people for RT'ing you also drive more traffic back to your own Twitter account giving everyone another opportunity to see all your different blog posts.

When you are thanking someone for re-tweeting one of your posts, take that time and the opportunity to find something of theirs to re-tweet. Then you can create a wonderful circle of sharing, how good is that? Make that happen with a lot of people, and your blog posts will go really far and yes you will absolutely be driving traffic with Twitter.

Remember the more people who see your posts and who see your offers, the more money you'll make. Be sure that you're creating content that's worth sharing and have fun with Twitter.

And now, I would like to invite you to get your Free Instant Access to 30 Social Media Marketing Tips & Techniques to build your home business using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Go To http://www.butterflynetworking.com/

Here you can sign up to receive specific step by step instructions for using social media to find contacts, leads, customers and clients. You will instantly receive the 30 Tips Workbook, totally free, so that you too can take advantage of Social Media Marketing.

Brought to you by Carla McNeil - Social Media Manager

View the original article here

Social Media Employment, Work Has a Whole New Meaning!

In light of the high rate of under-employment, down-sizing and temporary lay-offs; people are searching for ways to remedy their cash flow problems. Employment seekers are finding alternative ways to make an income these days and managing a company's social marketing is gaining in popularity.

One such niche that has surfaced in the last few years is "social media employment".

You may have heard of it as "social media management" but whatever you want to call it, social media employment is providing job-hungry people and entrepreneurs alike, a profitable home based business due to the need for companies to stay competitive on the internet.

Social Networking Sites are on the Rise

The amount of social networking platforms, it seems, is growing by the minute. Google+ is the latest to date and companies big and small are seeking how they can promote their brand from popular social media sites.

With roughly 800,000,000 users, Facebook gets larger by the day and has changed the way people communicate and connect with one another.

For some people it has replaced email and even making phone calls - particularly to friends on other continents. Facebook recently modified its format and it has greater potential for being an effective marketing platform.

A company can start things rolling by designing a Facebook fan page and driving traffic to it to get Comments, Likes and Shares. Needless to say, a business can market its products and services very effectively utilizing the social network platforms.

An effective marketing strategy and irresistible brand will produce thousands of comments and naturally, with these social network interactions, it's a tremendous amount of work for even the big companies.

Out-Sourcing Social Media Management

Businesses, from "mom & pop" stores to the big corporations, have turned to out-sourcing the daily tasks of tweeting, commenting, posting, blogging and even uploading YouTube videos to employed and independent social media managers.

Often the only job requirement is being well versed in the social networking platforms, possessing good writing skills and being an effective communicator.

Companies are employing people as well as contracting with home based entrepreneurs to keep the conversation going on the social sites because they want "fans", "likes", and "tweets" to build a loyal following.

Other duties associated with social media employment would be to engage people in conversation about a particular company and their product, as well as monitoring dissatisfied consumer's comments and sending out special promotional offers.

Social network manager positions pay a going rate of $25-$35 per hour and a rookie can expect to make around $40,000 a year working from home.

Social Networking is the Future

Social media is on its way to becoming the primary means for companies to market products and services to their prospective customers. In light of that, companies are rushing to have a presence on the internet and opening more opportunities for social media employment.

So are you seriously looking into the social media employment niche to earn an additional income online or possibly begin a new career? If you believe you have the skill-set to be a social media manager then you possess a skill-set to start your own online sales and marketing business.

Visit my blog and read my review of the Empower Network Blog Business System. No matter what your experience level is, this platform gives you the education, resources and technology to immediately launch a profitable online marketing business.

You would also benefit from reading my article What's the Difference Wealthy and Average. Discover how to avoid 7 self-sabotaging beliefs that will always hold people back from reaching their financial goals!

View the original article here

Socializing, Challenging, and Rewarding With Social Media!

Some precious opportunities disappear right in front of your eyes if a proper action is not taken in the right time. Social media sites are a fresh resource to generate handsome, respectable income through the internet whilst selling products. Vivid learning sources are available now that have a high degree of confidence and a challenge to join and earn without any technical background or know how. Some of the comprehensive courses offers complete solution to begin with a strategized internet business following their proven steps and time tested methods. These methods are evolving due to the immense popularity of social media marketing over to other methods of internet marketing.

In earlier days people used to surf social networking sites to meet and greet online community of their friends and likeminded groups. Nowadays, a business approach is linked to these social networking sites due to their higher responsiveness to internet marketing. Unique ideas are always accepted widely and are preferred by most due to the high success ratio. Facebook marketing is getting viral and methods devised to streamline marketing are being opted by many to earn handsomely. The power of social media sites is unimaginable and even the sky is also not limit for growth.

When your e-business is blessed with millions of visitors and thousands of potential buyers, you need not look further for any other options to improve business. Twitter marketing is one of the popular sources of internet marketing. Similarly several other sites like Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest ensure to develop the business with their user base of millions of users. In all these sites the tremendous power of the huge user base is highly influential in making or breaking your business on the internet. All the users of these sites arrive at the landing page or the application page through a recommendation of some sort.

Recommendations play a viral magic in social media marketing. Users share content with your links with a comment and all the links to your business page or site passes through thousands of users recommending your products. This ensures quality branding and promotion of your business among potential buyers as only interested users are involved in such interactions. Social media sites offer a viable business opportunity to everyone who has a quality proposition. Gone are the days when businessmen used to get frustrated due to lesser sales. Nowadays, with the right proven methods, people are in a position to earn money even when they are fast asleep.

The author has an immense knowledge on social media marketing. Know more about twitter marketing related info in his website http://www.socialhoot.com/

View the original article here

2 Tips To Make Money on Facebook

Wanting to take your Facebook marketing to the next level?

Follow these valuable secret tips from the successful Facebook Marketers!

Facebook can be used in a variety of ways to market and promote your enterprise or business. It can be a very valuable asset and tool in your marketing strategy. Facebook provides an effective medium for your business irrespective of whether you are using affiliate products, blog or content marketing or simple networking.

While some marketers rubbish social media marketing, it is, on the contrary, an effective and free marketing tool with great potential. The art is in using the right technique for the right target audience. If you have a Facebook business page, your followers and likes are highly targeted. Imaging you posting your blog, it will be viewed by hundreds of your targeted followers.

Here are two strategies to integrate your multi level marketing and Affiliate marketing with Facebook. What I have discussed here is the broad outline, one will have to fine tune the strategy to address the niche specific marketing needs.

Build Your Down-line

If you are looking to build your multi level marketing down-line, Facebook is the perfect medium for that. You could have multiple business pages representing different niches and your followers or likes are indeed your leads. It is a matter of time that they will become your recruits. It all depends how you attract them to you, marking them hungry to know more. The moment that happens you could take the lead offline and do your prospecting. See how simple it is to convert leads to a recruit?

Having said that I must also put a word of caution. You get your likes for two reasons, firstly the quality of your profile and page and secondly the quality of your content. Your content has to add value, it must relate to the issues that the likes are facing and offer a solution. It must also establish you as a serious and qualified person on the subject... an expert to be precise.

Affiliate Marketing on Facebook

Yes, you could do that. But wait, if I were you I would hesitate to directly market my affiliate products on my Facebook business page. I would not like my page to become a sales page. Once I get that reputation, my followers or likes would not take me seriously. I may be branded as "yet another sales person". Pitching your product directly on any social media platform has its inherent dangers.

Instead, I would post suggestive blogs to invoke reader curiosity, build a hype to know more and then when asked for, slip in my affiliate opportunity as a solution privately to the person interested to know more. This is by far a more effective strategy to monetize Facebook for your affiliate opportunities.

The best way that I attract followers and likes is through a very active presence on Facebook. While I hate people making twenty posts a day to mark their presence, I feel five to six good posts, comments, pictures or thought-provoking sentences should do the trick. There is no definition of how much is enough or how much is less, but you soon understand the number of times you should interact by the response you get on your posts.

In the current economic scenario, Facebook presents an excellent opportunity for people to market themselves and their business in a very effective and profitable manner. It all depends on the user how much he is able to en-cash... the Facebook ATM is ready to dole out cash.

Get Total Financial Freedom Using Facebook? Live Your Dream Life Forever... CLICK HERE NOW or GO TO http://topmlminternetsecrets.com/

View the original article here

How The Facebook Revolution Changed The World

Facebook is now the number one social network site on the internet. It's really a good environment to keep your friends, relatives and well wishers in touch with you. It minimizes the hard work and makes the way of keeping updates of your near and loved ones flexible. It eases the communication level and makes people come closer. It's revolutionary in the world of social network.

But do we realize the bad side of it?
Let me explain something very clear. Though it lessens the pain of being in contact with your best friend, it takes away the essence. Now-a-days, it takes no effort, to be honest, to wish your best buddy happy birthday. In the past, maybe you called to show your excitement and cheer him up. But what's happening today is that you just go to the wall, type a few emotionless words as a wish and send it. Is there anything real in it? Does the person who receives this wish feel your emotions? Of course not!

The same thing can be told when it comes to relationships or dating through Facebook. In today's world, you can just sit before your computer and simply send a friend-request to someone you like a lot. And after having a chat, you ask her to go out with you and that's it. The courage of stepping on the girl's door and asking her to go out with you face to face, is no longer needed. Also she won't be able to hear your voice obviously, even if your voice sounds loving and romantic and could make a difference.

Facebook is also known to be the cause of many divorces! Without truly knowing someone, couples go for the marriage without giving it enough thought. But after spending some time together, they realize that it was all a big mistake. The free access to conversations with so many different people makes cheating on one another an easy task. And it's happening quite often. Not to mention seeing someone you broke up with recently or someone you cared about kissing and hugging another person.

So what's the point of using Facebook when the only thing that it does for you is to make you feel worse?
Let me tell you, it's because you have no choice. Facebook is the largest social interaction platform in the world and it has become so popular that without it, one can consider himself unconnected to the world.

You simply cannot ignore Facebook.
Because today the girls are so selective and play so hard to get, guys are starting to implement espionage techniques in order to know the girls better and of course to be able to impress them. I remember reading about a system called "FB Inception" somewhere. It is believed to teach you how to take advantage and use unfair techniques for getting girls. They claim that using the system you will not only figure out what a girl thinks, but also that you will be able to plant ideas about you in her mind. How's that people? I'm sure I would enjoy doing something like that one day. We'll see how that turns out.

View the original article here

Benefits of Marketing Your Business With Social Media

If you're looking to market a particular service or product, then you might want to consider the wide-range of benefits that comes with social media, and its ability to easily connect with wide network of engaging visitors. Most companies can greatly benefit from the way social media is able to open up ease in communication with existing and potential clients. Here are some of the great features which can help with improving on a social marketing strategy -

Added Value - rather than just restricting your promotional effects to talking about your particular services or products on Facebook or Twitter, you might also want to look at adding value to the information you provide. It often helps to refer to or post links to interesting articles or studies in the same industry. Adding any extra information that you believe will be beneficial to visitors always helps with keeping them engaged. Offering tips, valuable or smart content will help with establishing you and your company as experts in the field.

Social Only Discounts - a great way to keep a social media page lively is to offer rewards, free gifts, price reductions or similar, which are only available to those that sign up your fan page or account. Advertising special promotions on just these types of accounts are a great way to entice a lot more potential customers to sign up. If a promotion is well thought-out, then it can quickly be passed around the net and even go viral.

Massive Reach - one of the most significant reasons for a company to sign up to Facebook or Twitter and create a lively and engaging page is the vast pool of people who you are able attract to your brand. When first starting up a company based fan page, get colleagues, friends, clients, and anyone you know to sign, and help in passing the link around to their own contact lists. Just adding you link to a network of accounts that you are able to ask for assistance from, can soon lead to a great following on your own personal account.

Great Customer Support - in much the same way that you are able to comment on your particular services and products, a visitor to a companies fan page can also leave comments, which might not always be to your liking. It is often best to assign a member of staff to monitor your social accounts to keep up to date on what is happening. If comments of a negative nature do appear, you can often use this to you own advantage, by being open and responding direct to a visitor's message. As your response in being made in public, you are able to establish a reputation for being helpful, quick and resourceful.

Visit Search Marketing Group to get a wide-range of information, tips and advice on promoting your website, such as the benefits of Google Place Optimisation.

View the original article here

Social Media Marketing - Consistency Is Critical, Are You Trustworthy? Of Course You Are

How frequently do you post on Facebook? How frequently do you blog? With a blog, you want to create an atmosphere of sharing, providing great information mixed in with your offers. With your blog, you want people to come back and read your content? Right?

When you don't post very often there is nothing new to see and when people do come back and find nothing new, you will find people won't stay on your site and they won't come back. There's nothing new for them to read. Not only does this mean people won't be reading your content. It also means that the search engine spiders from Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc won't be coming back either. As a result it will be harder and harder for people to find your blog.

So why do you actually want to post in the first place?

1. You're going to attract new customers and you are going to be able to keep you're the current customers engaged. You will demonstrate to your current and potential customers that you are reliable and trustworthy.

2. You're going to be able to inform people of the services and the products you have to offer. You're going to be able to provide your opinions on maybe some products where you have an affiliate relationship.

3. You're definitely improving your search engine optimization. We all know with Google, content is king. When you have new information when the spiders come to call, they make note of that and then they'll start coming back more often. You definitely want the spiders crawling your site. That is a large part of the search engine optimization.

4. You want people to come back to your site. Ask yourself the question, how often do you want people to come back? That will be a really good indicator of how many blog posts or posts you should be doing on your website.

The same holds true with your Facebook page. You definitely want to have that connection between your blog and your Facebook page so that you automatically have your blog posts show up on your Facebook page.

The same principles apply for posts on your Facebook Page.

You want people to be engaged, you want to be providing new information, quality content to keep those readers, customers coming back again and again.

Be sure to have the RSS feed on your website. That way, people can subscribe and they will receive an email that tells them that you have created a new blog post. It's one of the great ways to assist people in returning to your website over and over and over again.

And now, I would like to invite you to get your Free Instant Access to 30 Social Media Marketing Tips & Techniques to build your home business using Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube.

Go To http://www.butterflynetworking.com/

Here you can sign up to receive specific step by step instructions for using social media to find contacts, leads, customers and clients. You will instantly receive the 30 Tips Workbook, totally free, so that you too can take advantage of Social Media Marketing.

Brought to you by Carla McNeil - Social Media Manager

View the original article here

Leveraging Social Media for Generating Leads: Is It Useful for Product Sourcing Companies?

As an advocate, social media marketing is extremely useful and effective but only with a good strategy, plan and execution. So should product sourcing agencies, companies, buyers or exporters engage in the social media community?

My answer - a definitive YES. But how and to what extent?

Here are a few tips, guidelines and strategies (categorized by social media platforms) that you can use.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is probably one of the best choices for product sourcing and procurement specialists. LinkedIn is a platform specifically made for professionals, experts and industry leaders to connect, share ideas and insights. It is also an excellent place to find your customers, especially if you are in the B2B business.

Make sure you join the groups. Join groups that are both directly AND indirectly related to your industry but of course also those that interest you but are nothing to do with the industry. You never know who you might connect with that can help grow your business. I personally have joined several in the export, product sourcing, trade and marketing field. This is one I have particular liked (Strategic Sourcing & Procurement) as it gives a lot of insights and advices on sourcing.

Participate in discussions and polls. See what other people are saying and analyze polls. Add in your own insights and listen to feedback. If you are a market research or product survey, casually create a poll and get instant results.

Signup to alerts and newsletters. LinkedIn allows you to sign up or subscribe to news and alerts. Make sure you get those in your email at a daily or weekly basis to stay updated.

Twitter

Twitter is just amazing. I only recently made a personal account that led me to make one for MPN Intertrade. The great thing about Twitter is that everything is in real time and in fact most of my daily news comes from it. It is a superb tool for micro blogging, which means any blogs, articles or news you have, you should definitely "Tweet" it.

Here is how you can leverage Twitter to gain leads.

Use the Search function. The basic search function is extremely useful tool as it lets you save loads of time when searching for any topic or subject. It can be your brand name, the industry you work in (i.e. export, trade, product sourcing) or even your competition. The advance search function can further filter your searches by location. This allows you to monitor what people are talking or "Tweeting" about you or your business.

Post and Share Engaging Content. If you wrote an article, joined a seminar or hosted an event... Tweet it! And don't forget to use the #hastags with your keywords. It makes finding your content easier if people aren't following you. Use the ReTweet function as well if you find interesting content by others. This lets your current and potential followers know that you are an expert or industry leader and can be trusted.

Be responsive. Twitter users often search for services or products. It is a missed opportunity if you are providing it and even if you do not have that particular product or service, you can advise and direct them to the right ones.Being helpful and creating a network of followers might not bring you immediate leads but it sure can increase your chances. If you simply try to sell yourself to potential leads, they will just unfollow you and consider you a spammer.

Download Tweetdeck. A great application that can be downloaded to your desktop or your iPhone/iPad that allows you to monitor, manage and engage your followers. The search function can be integrated into the desktop, allowing you to monitor and reply to conversations in real-time. Hootsuite is another excellent marketing tool that allows you to schedule updates, post your social media messages across several social media sites.

Facebook

Facebook is remarkable for making company or product/service pages, where consumers can interact with your brand. For product sourcing companies it may or may not be the best choice for social media marketing. It really depends. If you are a B2B business like ours, chances are that Facebook won't bring you much in sales or even leads.

However, if you have promotions, extensive product offerings and most importantly your customers are on Facebook, you should definitely create a page. Just make sure you know what it is for: brand awareness, sales, community engagement, etc.

Pinterest

One of the more recent social medias, Pinterest is rising exponentially fast. For product sourcing and export companies, this is quite an interesting platform to look into, but not without some controversies.

This social media allows users to post pictures or 'pins' of just about anything within categories called "boards". So this can be a great place to showcase your products if you are a manufacturer who exports. If you are service-oriented company like us, then Pinterest is probably not the best place to be on.

Top concern for exporting/product sourcing companies using Pinterest

Are the product images being pinned yours? If not, does your company have rights or agreement from both clients and suppliers for posting them? Most manufacturers or clients would not want their product images floating around the web without prior consent or mention.

Get an agreement from each of them to post their products and it might just work wonders for your marketing efforts.

The Bottom Line - Conduct your market research and make sure your target markets are on the particular social media. Engage and provide useful content and not simply try to sell. Find out what 'people want' rather than what you 'want to sell'. Finally, if you have presence on several social media websites, use management applications to integrate them into one location.

For more articles related to international trade, sourcing, social media and more visit http://www.mpnintertrade.com/articles.

If you are interested in sourcing products from Thailand contact me at: shayan.naveed85@gmail.com or sales@mpnintertrade.com

View the original article here

RebelMouse Initial Review

The number of social media sites that we use continues to grow as the years pass. It wasn't too long ago that we had no concept of a status update, but now most of us have promoted them from just one part of our Facebook profile to the cornerstone of our Twitter accounts. It seems clear that the social media integration is not complete, as sites like Instagram and Tumblr have become more and more ubiquitous. Indeed, the days of social marketing are just beginning.

But already with only a couple of sites, many of us are wondering how to achieve some integration. For those of us with independent websites, we are involved in a near constant existential crisis over our inability to keep our homepages as fresh and new as our Twitter feed. This is where RebelMouse comes in. RebelMouse is a beta site unveiled by former Huffington Post chief tech officer, Paul Berry.

Your own updated and fresh home page

RebelMouse provides you with a homepage that collects all of your social media accounts into one place. And what's even better is that the page is constantly refreshed - without you having to do anything! It gathers your fresh social media content automatically, and then allows you to rearrange your posts to highlight those that you feel deserve it (and demote those that don't).

RebelMouse also provides you with a platform where you can create new posts and content. You can invite people to contribute to your page and follow your page, both of which foster the sense of community found with other social media sites. Analytics are provided that help you to learn about and analyze the demographics of your traffic.

The possible uses are nearly endless. They range from basic attempts to aggregate social media to advanced social marketing. Its features make it a great option for blogging. The format of RebelMouse also makes it a great way to disseminate information about particular topics. For example, a page on categories of products or even famous personalities could group posts and tweets about a particular topic and give you a vast amount of information from a variety of sources. This rich complexity of information seems to be the internet at its finest.

It's a great place for a snapshot of what your connections are interested in and talking about all across all social networks and the site is also a repository of information for what interests you and what you are focused on.

A combination of the best

RebelMouse combines all of the great aspects of other social media sites into one easily digestible feed. The simplicity of Twitter is still present; you can read status updates on RebelMouse. But an additional layer of complexity is added when those Tweets are juxtaposed with other comments, news stories, and pictures that logically belong next to them.

It's visual aspects also allow for fluid movement between pictures and text, all the while in a way that seems to allow you to absorb information very unintentionally. This format, similar to Pinterest, adds another informative layer. It provides an ease of transition between text and images that is hard to find elsewhere.

One of the reasons why this site is so useful is that we find updating our Twitter or Facebook feeds very easy, but when it comes to keeping our homepage up to date, we struggle. RebelMouse does away with that problem and takes all of the difficulty out of having an updated homepage.

"Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks "work" and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops - taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy, http://buzz2bucks.com/."

View the original article here

How to Protect Your Brand's Social Reputation?

Every second across the globe, people are logging on to a social media networks like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. They are staying connected to each other 24x7x365 days, sharing incidents, anecdotes, personal experiences, music, movies, information and much more. With the social media network assuming such expansive proportions, few business owners can afford to ignore their social reputation management strategy.

Whether you own a full-time business or a fledgling enterprise, you just cannot ignore the tremendous reach of the online market. More and more buyers are shopping online rather than personally jostling at the neighborhood market. To tap this huge market successfully, you need the right online marketing strategy, and social media should be an integral part of that strategy.

Why should you take the social media seriously?

A brand is not built-in a single day but it takes just a few disgruntled customers to spoil all that hard work. This is all the more true for the volatile online market where customers have million choices at their fingertips and brand loyalty can be very fickle. Aggressive competition and unethical promotional practices from rivals will force you to take your social media reputation management seriously and be alert about any efforts to besmirch your reputation.

Any news on the social media goes viral instantly. This means, all the latest happenings, including the latest offerings from business houses are relayed to thousands of social media members through an endless network of mutual friends. The relevance of social network in today's world also means that any bad word about your company will take just seconds to circulate among millions of members, thereby causing irreparable damage to your brand.

In today's world of online connectivity, customers are really the king. They have endless opportunities of analyzing and evaluating a company's reputation through logical and critical comments on various parameters. They make optimum use of review websites, self-blogs and social media platforms to reach out to each other and exchange information and advice. Most importantly, customers take each other seriously and respect each other's opinion about a particular company or brand.

How to maintain your brands positive image?

It is vitally important for you to be serious about your brand presence on the social media and make sure that your reputation does not suffer. You must be genuinely interested in having a positive presence on these platforms and reach out to customers in a proactive manner. Make your presence interesting by offering innovative services and useful information. Interact with customers meaningfully and respect their views. Think of ways of making customers review your brand in an affirmative way rather than self-promoting your company. Never re-direct customers to other links for any customer service or for lodging complaints. Offering help shows that you take your customers seriously and are willing to discuss their grievances even after the transaction is over.

Do not leave a standard reply for all customers but personalize your response as each of them will have specific complaints. Customers will consider your company as a genuine brand with great after-sales service and circulate the good review among their friends on the social networks. As part of your social media reputation management strategy, be prompt in your response to complaints. The world is moving at breakneck speed and customers will float away from a company which takes weeks to respond. On the other hand, most dissatisfied customers will have a good word for you if your response is prompt followed by quick action.

Get more information on social media reputation management and the importance of brand monitoring in the present world.

View the original article here

What Is StumbleUpon? One Amazing Marketing Tool!

I'm on a few email lists and this article came through today that really brought it home about StumbleUpon. Even as long as it's been around, people new to marketing still may ask, 'Well, what is StumbleUpon?'

According to SU's own website...

"We help you easily discover new and interesting stuff on the Web. Tell us what you like, and we'll introduce you to amazing web pages, videos, photos and more that you wouldn't have found on your own.

"As you Stumble through great web pages, tell us whether you Like or Dislike our recommendations so we can show you more of what's best for you. We'll show you web pages based on that feedback as well as what similar Stumblers and the people you follow have Liked or Disliked.

Our members have given us some pretty great compliments in the past, including describing us as "the entire Internet, all in one place," "an epic journey" and "a map to an adventure you wouldn't otherwise have found out about.

Whether you're interested in Humor, Photography, Fashion or Sports, we have something for you. Every Stumble is an adventure, and something amazing is always just a click away."

Personally, I love StumbleUpon for bookmarking my articles and other things out on the 'Net that I think other people might enjoy. And what's really cool about SU is that for as long as they've been around, they haven't made any substantial changes like most other social media sites out there.

As Chris Crum, Staff Writer for WebProNews says in his article "Read This, And Tell Me StumbleUpon Isn't An Amazing Marketing Tool"...

"Some things don't change. StumbleUpon, after all these years, can still be a great driver of traffic to your website, despite how little it has changed in comparison to other social services. Think about how much Facebook has changed over the years, or even Twitter.

"StumbleUpon is certainly a different kind of beast, but each of these products is used by people to consume information, and even if StumbleUpon's primary appeal isn't necessarily the social element, that element is there, and it has helped make StumbleUpon one powerful force for content producers."

And this is so true! As far as social media and social bookmarking sites like Digg, Reddit, Pinterest, Google +1, Delicious and even Facebook, whenever I bookmark my articles to StumbleUpon, I get more traffic from that one source than all the others put together. When it comes to driving traffic to your site or blog, SU is a "beast" indeed!

So if you haven't already started to do so, add social bookmarking to your To-Do List for places to submit your articles, and be sure to include StumbleUpon on the top of your list!

Karen Musselman writes about working at home and online marketing, offering tips on a variety of home business topics including SEO backlinks and social media. Karen also has online marketing tips and information on her blog at Working At Home With KSMusselman. Visit today for more information and stop by her YouTube channel too!

View the original article here

Enough With the Social Media Child's Play

The gloves are off.

I'm sick and tired of seeing companies falter with one of the biggest business opportunities of the century. Digital technology has taken marketing to a whole new level and with everything from CRM to SEO, there are tools being used that can wield great power. In the wrong hands however, they can destroy a brand in seconds and shut the gate on our valuable and shortening attention spans.

As companies it's time we step up our game, and it's time we said enough with the social media child's play.

We've all seen the "social media gone wild" posts that tend to go viral from time to time. @KitchenAidUSA is recovering from a recent slip up regarding President Obama, and who could forget finding out what @CrystlerAutos truly thought about the #motorcity.

But that's not what I'm talking about. Those are just examples of errors of judgment or pranks from people with access to the accounts. Though they are certainly problematic, for all I know, the PR maneuvering and free attention could have been beneficial to the brands.

No, what I'm concerned with is more epidemic and systematic and it stems from a lack of understanding about communication, social networking and value.

53,457,258,000

That's over 53 billion and it represents the opportunity the engage with the world. Well actually, it's more like the amount of time (in minutes) to engage only with American's on Facebook in just one month. To put that into perspective, it's 101,674 years.

Can you just imagine how much time is spent by everyone on all the social networks combined?

The communication is unprecedented, and it's shifting to an "opt-in" system where people only see what they've signed up for. I know like most people, I receive information from a variety of sources including Twitter, Email, Facebook and my favorite websites. As a result, there's an information overload. Consequently, many of us have keen value detectors because we don't have time for crap.

We're discerning with our networks and we are often unforgiving with our judgment. You have mere seconds to impress the world and gain entry into each individual's life. Will your message resonate or will you just be ignored?

In the words of the marketing thought leader David Meerman Scott,"You can buy attention (advertising). You can beg for attention from the media (PR). You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales). Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for free."

If you internalize that concept, the solutions will become apparent.

Delivering value is only possible from truly understand the customer's wants and needs- not your own. Find out what drives them, what keeps them up at night, and how they like to engage online. Then join where they are and the conversation- make it interesting, make it fun and make it for them.

"If the social media guy is the only one talking, the social media guy failed." - Steve Woods, CTO of Eloqua.

If social media hasn't been working for your business then frankly- you're doing something wrong.

There's a laundry list of excuses out there, but instead you need solutions. Focus on the customer, and give social the respect it deserves. It's a prime time event that can't be driven by someone who is inexperience or unenthused. I'm not saying an intern can't do the job, but everyone needs to be involved from the CEO down. So don't worry about "going viral" or hitting homeruns. Instead, build a team that can get on base and sustain the momentum over time.

"Content marketing is a commitment, not a campaign." - Jon Buscall, Owner of Jontus Media

Did I go too far or hit the nail on the head? Let me know in the comments.

Originally Posted at MrRyanConnors.com

View the original article here

Important Suggestions For Your Social Media Marketing Strategies

If your marketing is not as effective as it when was, you might need to get on the social media marketing bandwagon. Social media internet sites is often an efficient solution to get your item observed or your content material viewed by a large new audience. This article will demonstrate how you can use social media marketing for the own efforts.

TIP! You will need to try to remember to become conscientious any time you share information on social media web pages. It might be dangerously effortless to release content material on a social networking web-site with out putting plenty of believed into it.

Develop a genuine vision of yourself online, but maintain in mind that your goal should be to make a lucrative corporation. You normally desire to seem like you happen to be an expert in what you do so you shouldn't publish media or assistance that is questionable. Ensure that you maintain your personal style, but maintain movies relevant and tasteful. This helps make an awesome profile that will create a lot of income.

Your Facebook account need to usually be up-to-date. Everybody loves updates and will choose to read new content material normally. Share your weblog posts in your Facebook web page instantly. You can reach out to a wider audience with each blog post you write.

TIP! See what the competitors is as much as. Seek them out on numerous social networks and see what advertising techniques they may be using. It is vital which you hold your social media profiles updated and current. If none from the content material on your profile has been updated, you might likely lose the majority of your audience.

Use as a lot of social media outlets as possible to market place oneself. Facebook may be the most popular, but Twitter and even Myspace are nevertheless incredibly useful. The extra exposure you've, the far better a possibility you have at succeeding.

TIP! Make links that tie all your social media sites together. Involve links if you have a blog exactly where your shoppers can see you on Twitter, YouTube as well as if they choose to like you at Facebook.

Make it nearly impossible for readers to not click via to your web site by utilizing creativity within your titles. Creating an intriguing headlines makes it extra probably that readers shall be drawn into your posts, giving you more manage over their on the net activities. Social Media

TIP! To get your content shared far and wide, it needs to resonate with folks who are not acquainted with your niche. Be certain you place a humorous side for your posts, and make sure you stay away from technical terms.

Two-way communication is an essential aspect of any connection amongst your business and its social media strategists. Recognizing that they do will provide you with confidence in their capability to manage your problems and respond to them accordingly.

Have a look at their respective social media presences and be sure they take the time to respond to postings on such pages. Should you don't totally fully grasp the desires and interests of your potential consumers, your promoting campaign will not be flourishing.

You might want to discover out what these people are working with social networks for, just how much time they may be spending on this sort of site and what type of content they would prefer to see.

TIP! To generate one of the most of the social media presence, offer you buyers incentives to buy your solution, but do not overdo it. Customers in no way wish to really feel that they may be being coerced into a obtain.

Comment on other blogs which have to accomplish along with your niche, and try to visit news articles. That way, you are going to develop your own on the internet presence and reputation as an expert within your niche.

Normally know that you ought to comment on factors with all the utmost know-how and do not just hurry your content. It is vital to become friendly, but it is far more important to become genuinely useful. Be certain your postings have eye-catching titles.

Essentially the most significant feature of your content is definitely the headline for the reason that it draws the reader's eye first. If it truly is catchy, they're additional most likely to read the write-up. Perform difficult on producing clever and intriguing titles.

TIP! Reach out to as many people as you possibly can whilst creating and implementing your social media advertising and marketing technique. No matter if they're loyal buyers, prospective shoppers or have no chance at all of ever getting from you, it's a great idea to possess a big network. Don't let your profile turn into saturated with nothing at all but your posts.

Hit a balance among letting individuals know what you as well as your organization are up to and showing an interest within the concerns of your readers. In case you are going into social media marketing and advertising, you have got to become capable to take care of the negativity that can be associated with it. Even when most of the people consider your solution would be the greatest issue considering the fact that sliced bread, there will usually be some naysayers. These remarks must be dealt with speedily to show you care about your clients.

TIP! Stay somewhat flexible for the schedule of web page updates. After you launch a significant campaign on a brand new product, ensure that to supply the frequent updates people today count on to see.

You need to now see that it really is really feasible to win with SMM. Following reading this article, you should know how you can use social media within your marketing and advertising strategy.

You can glean enormous targeted traffic for your site even though spending quite tiny. So, dedicate the time to market place your company and web page, and do all which you can with this free

Work with me personally It will be your tool to success.

View the original article here

Social Media Optimization - What Are The Different Ways To Stay Visible In An Online Search?

Social media optimization (SMO) is the latest way to get your company and brand noticed by a global audience. According to a recent survey, 66% (over 1000 million) of the world's population use social media. So this new channel is one of the best ways to promote and brand your business throughout the world.

SMO is an amazing medium to market, build visibility and to generate demand for your product. The intention of social media optimization seems much similar to that of search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is about optimizing the content so that it is discovered in search engine result pages. Like wise certain techniques are carried out to optimize a social media.

Attract Customers, Bring in Traffic

An established internet marketing company helps your business attract the targeted customers through social network optimization to increase the online visibility of your webpage. The right service provider will be well-equipped with a team of professional SEO experts that can offer you a comprehensive suite of social media optimization services. They can improve the results of your website with service such as tagging and book marking, blog marketing and optimization, building Facebook communities, Twitter profile building and forum marketing.

Some of the advantages of social media optimization are:

• Posts essential information of your product or service.
• Creates an extension to relevant page on a single click
• Gathers additional information related your business and presents it in a proper way which creates a need in targeted customers.
• Develops a network to follow your business updates
• Enhances a consistent and transparent relation between you and the customer.

Social Networking Sites are Ideal for Branding

Social network marketing is an online process for website promotion where you can share website information about services and products in respective online social communities or groups. There are many social networking sites such a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and more. A recent survey on active users of social networking sites 2012 by FrogDog shows that Facebook has 552 million active users, Twitter has 170 million active users and LinkedIn has 160 million active users. This proves that social media optimization is the best way to make your website visible.

Internet Marketing Company: A Platform to Help Your Business Stay Visible
The right service provider will ensure that your website content reaches the maximum number of readers by choosing the right social networking sites to project your business. The SEO team posts content such as articles, photos, and videos online and shares these with your targeted audience regularly. Sharing your website links with social networking sites is also increases the popularity of your website. All these strategies can increase the traffic to your site, which increases rank of your website pages on search engine.

Their online marketing services for your products and services with Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools can get your business where you want it to be - ranked top on popular search engines. Other important benefits of social network marketing are

• An established online presence
• Familiarize your brand with your target audience via the online social network
• Drive traffic to your website from social networking websites
• Acquire links from prominent blogs, sites and portals
• Develop strong customer relationships
• Generates long period link traffic
• Generates more sales and more revenue

To stay visible in popular search engines, locate a reputable internet marketing company. Compare a few relevant companies, analyze the services provided, read reviews and choose the one that can best meet your needs.

MOS SEO Services is a leading SEO Services Company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, providing white hat search engine optimization, social media optimization and Internet marketing services.

View the original article here

Social Media - How Are You Engaging Your Customers?

How many times have you heard someone say, "The business landscape is changing" in the last 5 years? Chances are the answer is A LOT if you own or operate a business. While hearing this may cause some to grit their teeth, the message is true -- Many facets of running a business have been disrupted by the introduction of the internet, websites, and social media.

The internet itself has been around for quite a while now, and many businesses had a website by the turn of the century. Web Designers who threw a slick design together and registered business names as.com addresses made a bundle. Most business owners saw "dot-com" as value added--simply another way of getting the message out to the masses. This was true in 2000 and it is still true today -- with a twist. There are infinitely more businesses online now than there were in 2000 -- and most are competing in the social media marketplace.

Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, boasts nearly 900 million active users. For help putting that into perspective, consider that the current population of the united states is just above 300 million--1/3 the number of active Facebook users. Twitter boasts well over 100 million active users, as does LinkedIn. Those numbers are staggering. The simple truth is, no matter what business you are in, no matter what you do to make a living, a majority of your customers are online with social media.

The knee-jerk reaction is to "get out there" and make a Facebook page for your business. Perhaps open a Twitter account and start "tweeting" your daily deals. These reactions are OK, but a holistic social media strategy requires more finesse. The largest challenge in social media is identifying your target audience and going after them. Notice that many businesses are doing the exact opposite when it comes to social media! Their Facebook page sits there, waiting for anyone and everyone to stumble upon it. Some people may "like" the page, others won't, but a majority of people will be indifferent. Social Media is about reaching out and engaging others. This is true for business pages as well!

Having a Facebook page without having a strategy is like having a storefront in a HUGE mall without any signs or advertisements. People can still come-in and shop, but nobody knows what you're selling until they step-foot inside your store. Most people will never make that step unless they have a clue about what is inside -- that's human nature. Social Networking gives you the ability to show people what you're all about--highlight your product or service, advertise promotions or special sales, and give directions, all before the customer has to step foot inside your storefront.

Earlier I mentioned that "dot com" is value-added advertising. This is still true today, however social media has become the primary vehicle for the message. Having a complex (and expensive) website is no longer a necessity. For most businesses a simple store-front page is plenty, so long as its augmented by a realistic social media strategy. The programs we use -- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare, will certainly change, but the strategy around social media will not. There will always be a social hub connecting people on the internet, and businesses will always be expected to have a presence in this hub.

In closing, I often have people object to social media with a couple of arguments, mostly along the lines of, "I prefer to do business face-to-face" or "I like doing business the old fashioned way." I wholeheartedly agree with these sentiments. Social media will never take that aspect of your business away -- it will help you build better relationships with those people whom you meet face-to-face. A realistic social media strategy has its place alongside traditional print advertising, Radio & TV advertising, and outdoor advertising. Some methods may work better for your business -- just remember, it's the strategy that grows your business.

T. Andrew Bledsoe holds a Bachelors of Science in Digital Media Communications and a strategic marketing MBA from King College. Andrew is a marketing strategist at Summit Marketing specializing in online marketing & social media. During his free time Andrew enjoys running, reading about marketing strategies, and designing websites. Andrew's Online Marketing Blog.

View the original article here

How Social Media Can Benefit You

There are many different ways in which you can use social media to help bring attention to your company and the products and services that you offer. Many times companies don't know how to successfully include social media into their existing marketing plan; what we are going to do is to help you understand the different ways in which social media can help your business grow.

· Become More Visible - Using social media as part of your marketing plan is a great way to increase the awareness of your business. By creating a fan page you are inviting the public to visit your page and discover everything that you have to offer.

· Bring In More Traffic - Participating in some type of social media is an excellent way to help increase the amount of traffic that your website sees. By providing fans or followers new and interesting information on upcoming product releases you are awakening their curiosity and they are more likely to visit your website to find out more. While they are there investigating the new products, they may also decide to make a purchase.

· Increase Your Likability - Becoming active on social media websites is a great way to provide your business with a face and personality. Visitors who see this are more inclined to trust your company over another because they are now able to develop a connection with your brand. It will also give your business a sense of caring for the public and what they think about your products or services.

· Invite Interaction - Your fan page is a great resource when it comes to discovering how the public views your business or products. You can also ask your fans what they would like to see you develop next or if they have any problems with any of your existing products. You can obtain a lot of valuable information by inviting your fans to interact with each other or even you.

· Target Your Marketing Efforts - Creating a fan page is also a great way to focus your marketing efforts to specific groups of customers. You are also able to promote any specials that you are currently running. You may also want to create specialized discounts that are only available to fans of your page.

Social media has created a new avenue that wasn't available in past years. You are now able to reach thousands of people with one simple update to your page. This allows you to create targeted marketing plans that are geared towards your online activity. If you haven't already embraced the age of social media, the time has come. By not actively participating in social media you are missing a great opportunity to grow your customer base.

View the original article here

Top 10 Social Media Marketing Don'ts

I have to admit it, I've had enough. Social media has been around the block. Millions of "how to" posts and books have been written, yet so many people are still getting it wrong. I've mentioned quite a few of these don'ts in previous posts over the past three years, but somehow, the message still isn't getting through.

Social media is personal, but too many people (and companies) are treating it as an impersonal advertising platform. Fail.

There are people on the receiving end of your posts. People who want to connect and engage. It's called social media for a reason.

1. Don't connect Twitter to Facebook. Two different social media platforms, two different languages. Your Facebook Timeline looks ridiculous with a one-sided conversation and all those @ and # signs. Just stop it. Check out Hootsuite instead, and choose which posts go where.

2. Don't send an automated DM to new followers on Twitter. It's impersonal and makes you look like a spambot. You do realize that I'm aware every single one of your followers is receiving the exact same message, right?

3. If I don't know you, please don't send me a personal message on Facebook, asking me to LIKE your fan page. Seriously, I'm not a fan.

4. Stop sending event messages through Facebook to your entire community. If we haven't had any previous interaction or engagement, how do you know I'm even a prospect - or interested for that matter. If you and your event are in Des Moines, why would I attend when I live in Los Angeles? Do your homework, otherwise, you're just a spammer (see #2).

5. Don't drink and tweet. That's right, don't tweet anything that you wouldn't want your mother or your ex-boyfriend to see. Tweets are archived in the Library of Congress, so once you hit Enter, it's out there forever.

6. Don't be a narcissist. Seriously, enough about you already. Stop broadcasting your products and services and start listening to what others are saying and engage. Just because it's virtual, doesn't mean it isn't a real conversation with a real human being on the other end.

7. Don't tweet the same thing over and over again. One particularly guilty coach I know has tweeted the exact same thing at least 20 times in the last month alone. You might think it makes your marketing a little easier, but really, you're b-o-r-i-n-g us.

8. If you don't have the bandwidth to manage multiple social platforms, then don't. Better to be present and engaging on fewer platforms, then absent from or overly automated on too many. You are judged by the frequency with which you update your accounts and contribute to conversations where you can provide value. If the light isn't on, people will forget you.

9. Don't be all business all the time. First, you're boring us (see #7), and second, the only way we'll really connect with you is if you show us your personality and heart. Share your interests and passions so we can find common ground.

10. Don't be overly negative. The social space in general is extremely positive, with collaboration, conversation and helpfulness being the order of the day. No one likes complainers and whiners. And don't forget #5: any vitrol you happen to spew will be out in the ether forever, for all to see. Even your mother-in-law.

What's your #1 social media don't? Please share with us in the comments below.

Liz Dennery Sanders is the CEO of Dennery Marks Inc., a nationally acclaimed brand strategy and celebrity outreach firm, and SheBrand, a company dedicated to empowering other female entrepreneurs and small business owners to build their buzz and create powerful personal brands that attract more clients. For a FREE report, "101 Ways To Build A Powerful Personal Brand and Attract More Clients" visit. http://www.shebrand.com/

View the original article here

Are You Social With Your Social Media Profiles? (You Better Be)

Before you develop all your profiles and all your key words and all your different things that you're going to do for your online business, do the research and find out where your target market is. Where are they commenting? Where are they posting? Are they in special forums? Are they on Facebook or are they on LinkedIn? Are they on all of them? Do you research; find out where your target market is hanging out. If you're already set up you can still go ahead and do the research.

Once you find your target market, you want to focus on two main platforms. You may find that your target market is on Facebook and Pinterest. You may find they are on LinkedIn and Twitter. They may be on Facebook and LinkedIn. Find out where your target market is and then concentrate on the two platforms where you find them the most, and focus your marketing efforts on those two top platforms.

As you grow, as your team grows, as your knowledge of social media marketing grows or as you hire someone to do it for you, you then can expand out into other platforms; but for your own sanity's sake, start with just two. It's hard to be "social" when you are hanging out on too many platforms and attempting to do it all by yourself.

Once you're on those two platforms, no matter which ones that they are, find the most active people. Go to a forum, go to a Facebook page, find the people who are the most active and interact with them. Follow them; reach LinkedIn, comment, check out their profiles. If it's on LinkedIn, you can give a recommendation, and for many people who are online, it's easy to give them a recommendation when you do the research to find out who they are online. I have met a number of people online that I do not hesitate to recommend, here's what I look for;

how do they respond,how quickly they respond,do they have good information,do they have good products.

Many different things are going to be able to give you the clues whether or not you're comfortable recommending someone on LinkedIn, and then you want to make sure that you balance your social media marketing with other marketing techniques.

Social media marketing by itself works, but it will take you a long time. The old phrase that you need 5 to 7 touches before someone will buy your products still stands. Social media allows you to touch people many different ways. Continue to use email, snail mail, phone calls, texting. Be sure to stay in touch with your clients, your prospective clients. So that you too can build your profile on all of the different social media platforms and use all of the marketing tools and techniques that social media marketing is going to provide for your business.

And now, I would like to invite you to get your Free Instant Access to 30 Social Media Marketing Tips & Techniques to build your home business using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Go To http://www.butterflynetworking.com/

Here you can sign up to receive specific step by step instructions for using social media to find contacts, leads, customers and clients. You will instantly receive the 30 Tips Workbook, totally free, so that you too can take advantage of Social Media Marketing.

Brought to you by Carla McNeil - Social Media Manager

View the original article here

Understanding Online Buzz

Buzz could be defined as the sum of all comments about certain issue that is exchanged between people online and offline. For companies buzz is something they keep hoping with finger crossed while doing traditional marketing. Buzz isn't any magical fortune effect, but creatable marketing outcome. It must be strategically crafted with specific planning and carefully seeded to the online community. Buzz requires people strategy combined with understanding of online network structure and online tools. The investment for creating buzz isn't money, but time, energy and imagination. It's challenging, but not difficult! SmallBizU suggest that you don't count ROI anymore for investment, but for imagination and if you have it, it's worth a lot. This is the new era of marketing!

When creating social media buzz you have to put aside your traditional view about marketing. Forget the still "oh so successful marketing charts" for Fortune 500 companies. Remember with buzz being small is often advantage, because it allows you to be more flexible, fast and you don't have such an burden to carry around. So put on your guerrilla goggles and begin to see your customers in the micro level in the terms of networks. Nodes and hubs are your new best friends!

Very fitting metaphor for how buzz marketing is different is to think buzz as harnessing the power of the wind through windmill. You can't necessarily control the wind itself, but you can harness the power for your mutual advantage and direct it in the right direction. The fact that the power might be beyond your ultimate control scares often companies, which are used to control all the information available, or that what they think. They are the one using nuclear power and believe me they don't like surprises. Wind power doesn't require such a big investments and almost anyone can do it as long you have the proper knowledge of how it works. Believe me, that in social media it's always windy.

Remember, you have to be prepared and be up-to-date of the latest twists in social media everyday. When you see that the wind changes, you have to adjust the angle of the propeller and you're back in business, while the nuclear guys don't even necessary hear the whispers in the wind. What you don't know really can hurt you. As legendary corporate blogger Loic Le Meur said "no company can go around the blogosphere and if you don't blog, someone else will do it for you". It's better be part of the conversation that outside of it. Le Meur presented the advantage of being present as using offence as defense, but the ideology in creating buzz is to use actual offence and push out right information at the right time in a right way and just in the exact right place. Simple isn't it?

The difference in creating buzz marketing is the level of paid and direct influence. You just don't need so big weapons, because you are going viral and you have to think your marketing methods more like creating an epidemic. In next article I will show you the elements to start a proper flu season.

Buzz marketing is very perishable topic and there is new information and news daily, go ahead and see what is buzzing now in my blog in http://www.creatingmarketingbuzz.com/ or follow CMB in Facebook. Let's keep buzzing. Thank you for reading

View the original article here

Are Images More Important Than Text Content in Social Media?

Like many of you, I have been amazed by the incredible growth of social likes Instagram and Pinterest. To read that Instagram, after only two years, has exceeded Twitter in the number of active daily users, almost has me worried. I write for a living, therefore I am counted on to provide quality, searchable content for clients. When tools like Instagram and Pinterest enjoy explosive growth in such a short time it makes me wonder if I should look into graphic design coursework. Already I have the challenge of capturing a person's attention with just 140 characters per update, and now I must compete with images that go viral in seconds because a person only has to hit a like or share button on a phone to create more awareness.

As I continue my work with Facebook, too, I notice the shift in reach on business pages. Where a text-only update may result in a certain number of people reached (this is without paying Facebook to enhance posts), the audience grows when you post a picture, and potential growth occurs when people think that photo is worth sharing. On my personal news feed, not a day goes by where I don't see at least one friend sharing something George Takei has posted on his page. With close to three million fans on Facebook, Takei uses his social media savvy to some extent for promotion and activism, but often his daily schedule involves sharing a humorous graphic. As I scroll down the screen, many have been shared tens of thousands of times. Takei is not the only one doing this on Facebook, either. Oreo enjoyed a lengthy campaign of tongue in cheek photos using cookies to commemorate historic events and achievements. Despite a Internet flare-up involving a cookie with rainbow filling to observe GLBT pride, Oreo likely received a substantial ROI

Can you imagine if you posted a message on a social network that received that kind of attention? Look around, and you'll see businesses are tuning in to what people are sharing and how they are using social media now. Businesses have Pinterest and Instagram accounts, and many upload square graphics that may be perfectly shared through the former networks. All it takes is for one person to find the graphic worthy of showing off, and you have the opportunity for promotion that works on its own.

Now, while imagery is important in selling product and grabbing attention, recent shifts in social media beg the question of whether or not we should completely change marketing strategies and focus entirely on pictures. Graphic design will always play a large role in marketing, but good copy sells as well. A picture can evoke emotion and show you something you want or need, but words to back up guarantees and highlights strengths are just as important. Photos are subject to multiple interpretations, where words deliver the facts.

You should definitely consider how your company can use graphic-intensive tools like Instagram and Pinterest to generate attention, but don't discount the power of the pen, or keyboard.

Kathryn Lively is a social media writing professional who specializes in Virginia web design services.

View the original article here

Facebook Cover Photo - Make Your FB Profile Attractive

It is an undeniable fact that Facebook is an incredible social networking website. One very obvious feature is connecting not only close friends and families but also bridging businesses and other industries around the world. Many were tempted to sign up because of its practicality such as the built-in chat box that is certainly convenient on making conversations to people online. Facebook was made phenomenal because it introduced the users to handy and helpful apps and games that became quite addictive to most of its users.

Since its outbreak on February 2004, it has reached approximately 955 million active users from all over the world up at this moment. Aside from this, it has caught the eyes of millions of small and big businesses that use the Facebook website as a strong marketing medium to reach a lot of people and acquire potential customers.

Like Friendster, which once was the number one social networking site few years ago, Facebook also allows its users to customize pages through its timeline features - the Facebook cover photo. Although Friendster allowed changes to themes and other profile personalization and customization, the convenience that Facebook provides still won over it. The Facebook cover photo customization became phenomenal and seemed to become an informal competition for every user.

For those who have not changed their Facebook to timeline version yet, Facebook Covers are located above the profile page right behind the display picture. It usually features a 851 x 315 pixel photo, which will dominate the majority of the page. It is the very first thing that the viewers will notice when they look over another user's Facebook page. This is why most of the users put up covers of their best shots of the day or any photo based on a significant occasion that they want to share with their friends. It could be a photo of them with their friends, or perhaps customized by a professional graphic artist or their favourite football players and so on. This is also a plus for Facebook since it provides that sophistication, whether to businesses and entrepreneurs online. It provides that great personal experience.

Anyone definitely don't want to be left behind! Improve your FB page now and do some customization on your best photo by editing with Instagram or other photo and graphic designing applications. If you are an entrepreneur, and want to advertise or promote your product and services online, create a relevant page about your product and make an attractive and professional FB profile cover to let the people know about your business.

If you are new to this, here's a simple tutorial on how to place a cover photo to your profile page using mycoverpoint.com. Go to the mycoverpoint.com website and choose the cover photo that you prefer. Once you have decided what cover to add to your Facebook page, place the cursor to that picture and a drop down dialog box will appear and will prompt you to change your cover photo. Allow Facebook to take over and provide you with great experiences to share online.

Do you want to have a personalized Facebook cover photo? Mycoverpoint.com is a website that allows you to choose from a wide range of cover designs, styles, colors, themes, and more. Facebook cover offers a lot of significance to the users especially for the growth and development of online business.

View the original article here

Four Benefits of Using Social Media to Promote Your Business

There's a lot of positivity with social medial these days, what with its ability to drive a significant portion of daily traffic to a business related website. The main social sites, Facebook and Twitter, are also very effective at increasing business sales if the right steps are taken to market you services. Here are some of the benefits that might be achieved by using social media to promote your business -

Raise Awareness of Your Brand - Since a high volume of internet users use the social sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus+, Pinterest, etc. on a daily basis, it is vital to get your name and brand out to those visitors. If you haven't already started, then you should take the first steps to create a presence online in the ever-expanding world of social media.

Aim to create a video or similar which is able to go viral across the net which might be either fun or informative. Short funny videos are often quick to be passed around the net, and often go viral a lot faster than any other type. Facebook and Twitter are great places to start-up an online community to engage and interact with your target audience. This has the potential to drive traffic, increase brand loyalty, and give a great opportunity to make a lot more sales.

Custom Opinion - a great feature to the social sites is that you are able to interact with your target audience and listen to what they have to say about your particular products, services, or company in general. By taking onboard any constructive criticism it might be possible to improve on your services to better target your audience.

Pitching Products or Services - with the relaxed way of communicating on the social sites, it is quite possible to pitch your services in a more pleasant and interactive way. In your conversation ask questions with the hope of enticing them to rely back, this is a great way to make an important connection and hopefully gain new and eager customers.

Carry Out Research - make sure to listen to what your visitors say your services or products and keep an eye on links or polls that are clicked to see what your customers are most responsive to. Web users love to write comments or express their opinions on the social sites, which gives you the change to hear what your customers really have to say. This feedback, whether positive or negative, can then be used to help with tweaking your services to further please you costumers.

See more on the various types of social media marketing strategies for promoting your online presence.

View the original article here

How Can Technology Help My Business to Expand Into Social Media?

More and more businesses are realising how much they can benefit from the marketing platforms that social media offers them, it is obviously very tempting to jump on the band wagon as soon as feasibly possible. The fantastic leap that technology has offered both small businesses and corporate companies to expand to the far corners of the world has meant a complete rethink on how businesses are run in today's fast moving world.

The Internet opened up many doors and online marketing presented new challenges for businesses in general. With the advent of Facebook and other such sites, it was only a matter of time before marketers realised what great marketing platforms they had at their fingertips. Social media enhances business productivity by allowing companies to use important tools which allow business collaboration, as well as offering them the opportunity of setting up a very professional looking organization. This is all achieved by social bookmarking tools.

When it comes to researching customers, social media offers corporations a virtual marketing research tool which is extremely cost effective. Companies can see precise data on potential customers and this shows them what these customers are looking for when they visit their websites. The data they gather can be analysed then used to their advantage. It shows companies if they need to improve certain areas of their websites, or even their products/services they are offering customers via their websites.

The technology behind social media and search engine optimization provides extremely effective marketing tools because social media communities have leverage on how the web works for them. The simple truth is that most people today find all the information they need in two ways and these are firstly via searching through their browser and secondly from trusted recommendations who have had good experiences when dealing with e-commerce websites.

For everything that works extremely well and social media does offer companies many advantages, there is always a downside. When using social media platforms to expand your business opportunities successfully, you have to ensure that your business is more than just transparent.

Consumers that use the Internet to purchase items or find services they may need to use must have a clear vision of how you and your business operate. This is more than just expected of e-commerce businesses these days. If a potential customer has any doubts about your company, they will find someone they feel they can trust instead.

Social media has opened the doors to marketing in a very positive way, but visitors to e-commerce websites, once they have been captured, need to feel comfortable about doing business with the site they are on. Being transparent means you can create a community around the products or services you are offering people. The end result is a better relationship between a company and their customers. In short an initial trust is established immediately.

There are many factors to consider when using technology to help your business expand through social media. These include evaluating current processes and updating them if you need to. Are you synthesizing qualitative insights as well as analysing hard data and most importantly are you evolving the tools and methods which will allow you to measure your success rate?

The whole concept of using the technology available means understanding how it will benefit your business, but the key to the whole process is in understanding how to use it to your best advantage.

For more information on how to grown your business online and how to use effective internet marketing, please visit us at http://www.ladyluckmedia.co.uk/

View the original article here