12 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- The Facebook Trust Dilemma
- How To Make The Most Of Your Blog Posts
- Should Your Facebook Business Page Share A Login With (Be Created By) Your Facebook Profile?
- 3 Small Businesses that are Doing Facebook Right
- Ask An SEO Expert – gTLDs vs. ccTLDs
- Two Years Blogging and No Real Income! 8 Reasons Why
- 8 Clever Ways to Use Pinterest for Business
- Socialising Your Business Data With Fliptop
- Social Media Activism: How Can It Relate To Your Business?
- Blog Post Promotion: “I’ve Blogged. Now What?”
- Why Google and SEOers Are Not Friends (Nor Ever Will Be)
- Social Media Marketing Budgets and Small Business
| Posted: 08 Dec 2012 03:00 PM PST The recently announced Facebook Job Board has inherent risks for everyone – users, advertisers, and Facebook itself. Facebook became what it is today by innovating – "moving fast and breaking things." While that may be a viable strategy for a start-up, by social networking standards they are now an established business. Now that Facebook is a public company the pressure is on to increase value for shareholders, of which I am one. Do you think IBM or Apple would publicly advocate breaking things? It is becoming apparent that Facebook has not considered that it may be time to revise their manifesto. Moving fast and breaking things is admirable for innovation, provided it doesn't cannibalize the very structure that served to build the business into what it is today. Observation Changes BehaviorsRecruiting works well for helping LinkedIn monetize their business because that is the reason people use the network – either to find a job or business opportunities. How you use LinkedIn is congruent with the purpose of the network – to connect people with others for practical business purposes. The clearly understood purpose of LinkedIn determines your behavior on their network – because you know you are being watched and by whom, you behave accordingly. Knowing that businesses are now able to use Facebook for job search, those eager for work are going to start policing their profiles to be what they believe employers want them to be – not who they really are. This of course compromises Facebook's primary revenue stream. Compromised Social Graphs Affect AdvertisingWhat made Facebook profitable was giving advertisers the ability to target consumers within their vast network with laser accuracy, thanks to the power of Facebook social graphs. For example, you can target buyers based upon whether they are politically liberal or conservative, which is something the average Facebook user is not aware of — until they lose a job opportunity as a result. Facebook has a dilemma. They created an environment in which most people feel comfortable being themselves, yet now they have injected yet another element into the platform that is guaranteed to compromise it. The opportunity for employers is the average Facebook user is much younger than the average LinkedIn user. However, this younger generation that grew up with Facebook has already taken steps to protect their privacy for the time when they enter the workforce – such as completely deleting their account and starting fresh. The bottom line is Facebook needs to decide what it wants to be. Is it going to be social network, a business network, or something in the middle. Just as in politics, there are risks associated with compromise, such as alienating your core constituency. Transparency Wins the GameOne of the reasons Facebook is meeting so many challenges is a lack of transparency and access. Over at LinkedIn you can read blog posts by co-founder Reid Hoffman, and even join groups managed by LinkedIn employees. Even Google has hundreds of community managers that hold Google+ hangouts to connect with business leaders – real people reaching out to their users. To my knowledge, there is no way to easily connect with anyone at Facebook. The Facebook blog is located within the walled garden of Facebook, and while others can make comments, there is never a response from Facebook. Let's be honest, many people simply do not trust Facebook, and more are piling on every day. That's where Facebook needs to focus their efforts right now. If Facebook expects to continue to grow its user base, keep advertisers happy, and make their job board successful, they need to quickly make some strong moves. This means fixing things – not breaking them. I'm not sure I see that happening. How about you? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts – and please share with your social networks.   |
| How To Make The Most Of Your Blog Posts Posted: 08 Dec 2012 01:30 PM PST Blogging Tips For BeginnersCreating the perfect blog post especially when blogging as a beginner, is typically at the back of people's minds and deciding what to write about takes precedence. Although ultimately the content rules king, once your audience begins to read there are a number of steps you can take to enhance their experience. By structuring your blog to include the attributes listed in this post, your content will flow more consistently, become easier to consume, share and communicate. The Post TitleYour post title should be in a word "Epic!" This is your chance to grab someone's attention as they crawl through the endless content that is available today. However if you are struggling, there are always 2 post types you can fall back on, 'How to' and 'Lists'. Readers love to consume 'how to' guides that will make every day task simpler or teach them something they didn't already know. The other is Lists, for example, '7 Ways to…' 'Top 10 Fastest….' 'Top 20 Most Expensive…' and always make it a random odd number if it's not a Top List. For some physiological reason if you make it 5, 10, 20 it appears as if you have forced the results to fill the list and '3 Ways to…' is always more believable than '10 Ways to…'. Lastly, make sure that you include your primary topic keyword in the title and preferably near the beginning of your blog. If you are using WordPress as your blogging platform, remember that WordPress, as default, will use your post title as your page title. This means that if you use more than 70 characters Search Engines will disregard anything after this point, so, as best practice, keep your titles short and punchy. Example: Your Opening ParagraphThe opening paragraph serves 2 purposes: firstly, it introduces the reader to your content and reaffirms what the blog post is about. Secondly, it retains the reader's attention – at this point they have read the title and are interested. If the opening paragraph doesn't grasp them it is likely they will leave in search of another article. As with the Post Title, ensuring that your primary keyword is near the start of your opening paragraph is very important for your On-Page SEO, BUT be careful not to over use your primary keyword, use variations and add related keywords (these are easy to find using Google's keyword tool or at the bottom of a Google search results page). Example: Add Images"A picture is worth a thousand words…" That said, adding an images to your posts can be great for a number of reasons:
Having 1 smaller image placed left or right aligned at the top of your post with your 'Opening Paragraph' will help to retain a reader's interest, as well as improving the overall look of your post, and, as I listed above, we all love pictures. They are a very efficient way to break up large paragraphs of text. Also, by adding multiple images or a gallery to your post you increase the likelihood of readers sharing your content, especially if they can relate to your pictures. Example: The Main CopyNow that you have your reader's attention, this is your opportunity to get your point across and go into detail on your topic. As you typically will include the bulk of your text content here, try to include primary and related keywords throughout your text. However, the quality of your copy should never be compromised at the expense of trying to add keywords. It has been said many times that you should keep you keyword density below 2%, BUT as a general rule, try to include them a few times in your article. If when you read it back you feel that you are repeating your keywords too frequently, time to edit your copy this time with the intended recipient in mind. Remember: The reader comes first. You are writing for them and not for Google. Use Bulleted ListWhere possible bulleted lists are a strong asset to include in your post, readers are drawn to bullet lists as they are to images. As we all skim read down a post, we are looking to find that answer to our problem in the shortest time possible. Adding a bullet list of short punchy points or steps allows a reader to quickly consume the information they require in seconds. Example: Finish with a Conclusion or SummaryToo often I read content and when I get to the bottom of the page I'm left thinking "What now?" Quick tip, don't make your website visitors think! In concluding or summarizing your post, recap on your message and then make sure you tell them what to do next. It could be as simple as: do you have an opinion on 'X'? Share your thoughts in the comments below or for more information on 'X' go here. The important thing is that you offer that next step. Always have Call to Action's (CTA)Carrying on from offering that next step, CTA's or Call to Action's are an effective way to use graphical banners or opt-in boxes to direct a reader to a specific page on your site or capture their details. These banners or opt-in boxes can be placed in side bars, during your post, or directly after your post as long as it's before the comment section. Example: Find out more about CTA Graphics Offer Related PostsRelated posts maximize reader retention and offer value. Should a visitor read your content and skip your CTA, your related posts act as another mechanism to encourage them to stay on your site. By presenting additional posts that complement the material they have just read, we can maximize the time your reader spends on your site. If you are using a WordPress plugin to facilitate this such as WP Related Posts, typically they draw the most recent posts in a category or tag group by default. So, if there is an option to select your most popular posts, I would advise you display your 'Top 5', or create a bullet list and link this to your 'Top 5' posts using the post titles as the anchor text. Example: Make Social Sharing EasyNearly everyone today who uses a mobile phone or a computer has some form of Social Network Profile, whether it's Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, G+ or Stumbleupon. By adding Social Sharing Icons to your post, you maximize the opportunity to share your content on impulse. By expecting your readers to copy your URL and paste it in their Facebook timeline or Twitter feed you increase the risk of them losing interest or getting distracted. So, keep it simple and make it easy for them. If you use WordPress, you could try the following plugins: Make it very easy to add Social Sharing to your blog posts. Example: Encourage CommentsAfter they have read your content, a comments section provides visitors with an opportunity to keep the conversation flowing and gather feedback on your blog post. Post comments are typically active by default in all blogging platforms – the only down side is that they can come without any form of spam protection. As a result of this you can fall victim to nonsense comments or people trying to advertise their website. Make sure you have a plugin like Akismet to limit this or set your comments to only go live once you have approved them. Example: What NextWhether you are blogging as a beginner or an experienced marketer, implementing the above steps will insure that your blog posts are both consistent and easy to consume. As discussed in a previous post on 5 Steps for getting On-Page SEO right for 2013 you still need to make sure you cover the basics. Simple things like:
They may seem trivial. However, without going all techy on you, as long as Search Engines or potential visitors are taking them into account I would advise you do the same. Finally, a WordPress plugin that I personally recommend to help manage your On-Page SEO is the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast. If you've had success with any other WordPress plugins for Search Engine Opimisation or Lead Generation, let us know about them in the comments section below   |
| Should Your Facebook Business Page Share A Login With (Be Created By) Your Facebook Profile? Posted: 08 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST Should A Page Be Stand-Alone Or Is It Safe For The Profile To Own It?Here's a great question from the Just-Ask-Kim.com mail bag…. Alex, from Simple Home Biz, asks: "Hi Kim, In setting up Facebook for my business, should I set up a fan page from my personal page or create a different page altogether? I have heard pros and cons of each. If it is a different page, should it be a fan page or a personal setup? Should I have a shared login or not? Do you have a better suggestion than any of these? Thanks!" This is a really good question and one that I hear quite a bit in fact! Alex is asking whether his Facebook profile should be used to create the page (meaning they share a login) or whether a unique login should be generated for the Facebook page. This is an interesting question because many people don't even realize it's possible to create an account that is sans-profile. At the end of the day – the net result is that the answer does not matter as long as we have more than one manager level admin (regardless of how we accomplish that). Having two managers, by any manner necessary to achieve that, helps ensure that the page does not fall into the abyss known as limbo if/when our personal profile gets suspended/removed by Facebook. We'd like to think that this kinda stuff never happens but the reality is that it happens a LOT due to both hackings and the tendency of Facebook's automated systems to be hyper-aggressive. You could do this by having initially set the page up as it's own account and then making your profile the alternate admin account (with full admin rights). Alternatively, you can simply assign a friend, colleague or spouse as your alternate admin and use your profile as the primary admin. The net result is the same. But what happens if you don't have someone that you actually DO trust with the reins of your business? (Lets be honest, sometimes the spouse having control can wind up really messy in divorce court.) That's where it actually benefits us to have – from day one – created the page with it's own login. Once the page is created with its own unique login… then the profile "likes" ("fans") the page… and gets added as an admin with moderator rights. However, what about those Facebook fan pages (business pages) that already exist? I have an answer for you but I'll be upfront in saying that it's borderline grey-hat. Meaning it comes very close to being touchy ground with the Terms of Service but should not get you in trouble. Simply create a new profile account using a spare email address. (Yes, I know this is against the rules, bear with me a moment…) Once you're INTO the account, use it to fan the page we are working on. Then make it a manager level admin. Next, convert THAT (new) profile into a page. (Do be careful that you are in the correct profile, okay? There's no going back.) Now you have a "terminal" aka business account that has no profile features… and thus does NOT violate the TOS by it's existence. And you ALSO have your actual profile. Both accounts, in both cases, have full rights to the page, and you're in good shape as far as the TOS goes since you have only a single profile. There ya go! Got any other questions? Drop them in the comments below!   |
| 3 Small Businesses that are Doing Facebook Right Posted: 08 Dec 2012 10:22 AM PST Social media is an important aspect of small business marketing, and today, Facebook is the largest platform. So many small companies have claimed their social profiles, but they remain untouched with little to no interactivity, thus eliminating any of the associated benefits of social networking. If you want results from your Facebook presence, you’re going to have to do it right. You don't have to be a large company with a massive marketing budget to execute social media marketing to your advantage. Here are 3 small businesses that are doing Facebook right: 1. Chocolate for Breakfast Chocolate for Breakfast is the Facebook fan page of a culinary nutritionist and nourishment counselor. The page's posts include anything chocolate and sweets related, from food photography tips, to audience polls, and recipes. Ok, so it doesn't hurt that chocolate is pretty much universally loved, but this small company has grown a following of over 120,000 in under two years. They've done this through publishing extremely engaging posts; ones that get commented on, liked, and shared with their followers networks frequently. One of the key lessons that can be learned from Chocolate for Breakfast: create posts that your followers will want to interact with, and tell your followers what you want them to do (ie: share). 2. Spruce Landscaping Spruce Landscaping is a great example of a business that knows how to publish a good Facebook post. Their page is visually engaging, with all posts being accompanied by a gorgeous, eye-catching photo, and they're active on their profile at least once every few days. The company joined Facebook in the last year, and has already developed a following of over 1000 people. No doubt, this has been achieved through consistent photographic posts that stand out in their followers news feeds. Their posts are relevant, often related to current events or news items. They also provide great value to their followers, through the regular posting of tips and interesting information. Key lessons: Watch what's popular in the news and leverage it for an engaging update. Use photos every post. Add value for your followers. 3. That's How We Brew- Home Brew Supply That's How We Brew is extremely active on Facebook and Instagram, and with their frequent and visually interesting posts, they have cultivated quite a close knit group of followers that interact with their updates. The business uses their page to promote free courses that they are offering, share awesome looking pictures of their products, and even to offer customer service. The page truly encourages a two way conversation between them and their fans. Key Lesson: Utilize Facebook as another avenue for customer service, in addition to your phone and email communication. There are so many businesses, large and small, that have jumped on the Facebook bandwagon. As a small business, you can't compete with the giants like Target and Starbucks, but you can still have a strong impact with your social media profile when done right. Try modelling some posts after the above examples, and see how much more interactive your page becomes. If you'd like to learn more about using the internet to drive sales, download the 10 Step Guide to Capturing Better Leads Online.   |
| Ask An SEO Expert – gTLDs vs. ccTLDs Posted: 08 Dec 2012 09:35 AM PST There are many different domains that you can choose when building your website. You may be wondering, does one type reign superior to another in terms of building trust and authority for your site? Can some domains isolate users that are in different territories (example .com vs. .uk)? How can you plan for future expansion now? In this week's Ask An SEO Expert, Bradley Smith, SEO Consultant at Slingshot SEO, explains the benefits of different domains and how to best plan for the future of your domain today. Do you have an SEO question that you would like to have answered? Simply submit your question on our website or via Twitter by using the hashtag #AskAnSEOExpert. Transcript:
Well, I would take that a step backwards and say, what is going to be best for the customer? Because, ultimately, if Google or Bing aren't there yet. They're trying to get to that point. What is going to be the best result to show for the customer, when it comes to ranking one website over another? So, some specific things that I would think of, when I'm trying to answer this question for a site that I'm building, or a client site, I would say, are there going to be any benefits to geo-targeting this domain? Am I going to gain any significant amount of trust by using a .io or a ccTLD versus a .com, a gTLD? Specifically, .io relates to British Indian Ocean Territory. I actually looked it up on Wikipedia. That doesn't have any specific language other than English. So, in this case I would say, okay, that is kind of off my checklist. I don't have to worry about if I'm going to gain a significant amount of trust based on the language of the domain name. The next thing I would say is, what is my site going to be about? Is it going to be an authoritative information site? Is it going to be a site where I'm selling products online? Specifically, if I'm selling products online, again, is there any significant amount of trust that will be gained by placing it on a .io? Am I going to specifically be able to target users or customers in the British Indian Ocean Territory region? So, that would be another question. Then, if I'm going to target British Indian Ocean Territory now, am I going to expand into other territories later, whether it's an information site or e-commerce driven website, anything along those lines? Because if I'm going to expand into different areas later, maybe I want to go ahead and use the .com anyways, just so it can be opened up to other territories. So, that being said, back to what my answer was, is what is best for the user? Because ultimately Google and/or Bing will have to be there in order to provide the relevant sites to a query in their search engine. There are a couple of other things that Google says specifically in their Blog about what to do with a multi-regional website, and what kind of indicators they're looking for with a multi-regional website. They talk about geo-targeting for specific websites, specifically for specific regions. I'll provide you with those links. But there are a couple of key things that they look for. They look to see for a specific region, there's a ccTLD associated with that specific information. So, if they see a ccTLD, they know that it is a strong indicator of a presence in that region, and therefore will provide a little extra weight to it. However, they also have the option to geo-target a specific region through their Google webmaster tools. So, you can get in there and basically work the same thing. So, it'd be, in my mind, equivalent to ccTLD by having a .com and geo-targeting it to users of that specific region. Again, if you want to expand later, you can also geo-target to other regions as well. They also look to see if the server for that domain is located in that country. That can be an indicator of a presence in that region, for that multi-regional website. Then the last thing they look for is, are there specific phone numbers or addresses on the website that indicate that the domain is specific to that region. Then, they take the geo-targeted results and they will use the geo-targeted results specifically for users who are opting in to queries from Google in that specific region. So, a user does a Google search, they have the option to search the entire web or to narrow their results to their specific region. That's what Google will show them and that's when geo-targeting comes into play. Other than that, Google will pick up your website, whether it's a .com, or a .io, especially if it's relevant to users in that specific region. So, I hope that helped. That's what I have. Again, keep the user in mind, what is best for the user.   |
| Two Years Blogging and No Real Income! 8 Reasons Why Posted: 08 Dec 2012 09:30 AM PST
I am not for hire, unlike other bloggers, but I have helped out about a dozen or so people for free, that's as far as I go. The thing is, sometimes I am wasting my time, as the person I am teaching is just never going to get it. Or if they do get it, they just don't do anything about it. This is a disappointing feeling for me as I like to see other people have success too. But I have to tell you now, I do not know anyone, not one person, who earns money the way I do. I only know other successful bloggers on-line. It is a funny world for me. Just remember, I am in Australia, living about 1.5 hrs. north of Brisbane. Most people in Australia have no idea this money making method exists so my chances of meeting another blogger that makes money online is greatly reduced. If I lived in the US, I guess I would have loads of blogging friends. Anyway lets just say I personally know 5,000 people (I know a lot of people). Of all of those people, not one earns money like I do, so what are your chances? Do you have to be lucky? Do you have to be business minded? Do you have to be technically skilled? No, you do not need any of these things. You just have to want it bad enough. That's it! Those people who DID GET it and didn't succeed did not want it bad enough. And those who just didn't understand it, didn't get it because they didn't want it bad enough. (might have confused myself here?) So if You Want It Bad Why Isn't it Working?People email me and say " Hey Mitz can you look at my site and tell me why my blog is not making money." I take a look and sometimes I could make a 10 page list and other times, seriously I cannot see a reason why. That's when it gets complicated and too deep to analyze with the time I have. Anyway here are 8 possible reasons why some bloggers never make any money. Of course I do not have time to mention the other 542 reasons here. #1. You're too busy learning and not taking actionMany new bloggers get stuck in the learning stage and never get out. Do you really need more learning when you know what to do? You should be writing content, publishing it, and then promoting it any way you can. While you are trying to learn how to become a successful blogger you are actually neglecting your blog. Funny isn't it? #2. You waste time trying to learn things you don't need to knowYou start to learn HTML and PHP and other fancy codes when you can build a website without knowing any of these. Granted you will need the very basics in HTML to form a link, however that is about it. Another thing people try to take on is web design. Why bother when your intention is to build a website or blog in order to earn income. Learning web design is only necessary if you actually want to become a web designer. #3. You spend too much time on your website layoutStop fiddling with your website layout and design. Haven't you heard of keeping things simple? Why over complicate your blog and make it too fancy? Of course having a nice web design is important but you can install a suitable WordPress Theme in minutes and then get on with creating your blog. Make sure you have fantastic content and an easy way for your website visitors to find it. That's how simple it is. #4. You are too busy reading about other people's successWho really cares what others are doing? Of course it is nice to have a mentor but how many do you need? Choose a few successful bloggers to follow and cut the rest out. Make sure you don't cut me out though! #5. You're not performing the right actionsYou are cruising around from blog to blog commenting and that is as far as your actions go. The real actions are publishing content and promoting it, so why are you over doing it in the commenting area? The right action is to post amazing content on your blog, create links to it, share it, and talk about it. Posting content on a regular basis and following up with promotion is the best way to build website traffic. Here are two more posts about promoting your stuff and generating traffic: 20 Often Forgotten Website Traffic Tips Website Traffic Checklist – 25 Concrete Ways to Get Website Traffic #6. You do not understand your audienceYou are trying to sell rice to the Chinese (and they already have rice) or you are trying to sell rice to Italians (but they like pasta). Find your audience and understand who they are and the money will come. Are you guilty of having a hosting banner on your website when your site has nothing to do with building websites or hosting? Sure you are hosting your "dog training site" on a hosting server, but your audience is interested in dogs.. #7. You do not know how to monetize your content effectivelyYou just don't know how to monetize a website and stick links and banners all over your website, then wonder why you do not earn any real income! Even worse you have totally unrelated advertising on your blog. Sidebar Etiquette went out the window when you added your fourth banner to your page footer. Or maybe you are giving them too many choices. Look at the picture with all the lollies… ??? Too many choices there make for a difficult choice and the more difficult the more likely they are to give up and not buy a thing! #8. You say you are doing what I am doing but you're not!Your idea of hard work and my idea are completely different things. You hear the word guest posting and say you are doing this, but when I investigate, I find you have only published one. I do two or three guest posts a week for each website!!! This is just an example. So if you have been blogging for 2 years and had no real income, stop and think what could be causing this?   |
| 8 Clever Ways to Use Pinterest for Business Posted: 08 Dec 2012 09:00 AM PST Very Pinteresting, Indeed
Pinterest is an easily-accessible melting pot of visual info, and the sheer volume of active Pinterest users make it an essential marketing resource for small businesses. With all the different interests and personality types that are represented on the site, Pinterest is a great way to improve and expand your company. We've pinpointed three key ways that Pinterest benefits businesses—research, networking, and brand building—and some techniques outlining what you can do to maximize these benefits: 1. ResearchSee What Other Images Interest Users To see what images from your website people are pinning, enter the URL http://pinterest.com/source/yourdomainname.com. This will tell you which of your images people are sharing the most, and you can use that information to shape your future content accordingly. Did thirty people love your blog post on five strange uses for old shoes, while only a handful pinned the image in your post on the best Italian leather shoemakers? Pinterest is a quick and easy way to see what interests your customers the most.
Learn What People Think of Your Brand Board names can be illuminating; they tell how the customer sees whatever they've pinned. Boards that currently have links to the IMA blog pinned include names like "SEO," "Marketing We Believe In" and my personal favorite, "Freakin' Great Ideas." Looking at board names can help you get a sense of how people perceive you and what kind of audience you're reaching. Store Your Info In One Convenient Place Maybe you'd like to have a document with all the info from your website's pinned images, including comments, pin descriptions, repins and board names. If you scroll down the very bottom of the page displaying your site's pinned images and type "Control+A" (or "Command+A" if you're using a Mac), all of the information on the page will be highlighted, and you can then copy it and paste it into a word processor. The images won't appear, but all the accompanying information will be in one document. 2. NetworkingComment on Images Like commenting on blogs, commenting on images is a useful way to connect with others in your field. Why do you find a particular image useful or interesting? How does it benefit you? Let the user know and include their username in your reply ("@username"), which will help them with their visibility on Facebook and Twitter. If you establish a relationship with them, they'll hopefully do the same and enhance your online presence, too. Make A Contest Board Hold an interactive contest to increase your board's visibility and comments. Have users submit images to one board, and have Pinterest users vote by commenting on their favorite. Award the user whose pin attracted the most interesting comments wins a prize. For example, if your business is a small clothing line, you could hold a contest challenging users to add their own spin to a basic clothing item—like a basic black t-shirt—and have them pin their submission photos to the contest board. 3. Brand BuildingHave Customers Contribute to Your Profile A different take on the testimonials page, a Pinterest board with your clients' testimonials, and images will let others see what you've accomplished. (And since pictures tell a thousand words, a testimonials board might be even more attractive than the typical text-only testimonial, especially if clients use an interesting photo.) Create Boards Focused on Your Company Give users an inside look at your company: create a Pinterest board with images summarizing your company's birth, its values and its goals; an employee board with your employees' individual images and a brief description of the person underneath; or a behind-the-scenes board with photos of you and your employees in the work environment. Adding a human element to your company is a surefire way to attract customers to your business. Make Boards Focusing on Your Buyer Personas Create a board that represents the type of buyer persona you're targeting. Place the board on your website so that visitors know what sort of businesses you want to attract. If you're aiming to attract business executives who travel a lot, pin images of products that match their lifestyle—productivity apps for smartphones, business apparel, travel gear, etc. Image credit: Threads Magazine.   |
| Socialising Your Business Data With Fliptop Posted: 08 Dec 2012 07:00 AM PST About a year ago I read a blog post (sorry cannot remember where) on the best social media tools. One of the tools mentioned was Fliptop. This is a tool that can take your email data, or your social follower data and append it with much more information on the individuals – e.g. if you have an email address then Fliptop can find all of the social profiles associated with that email address and append them to the email address. It can also run the same process starting with a Twitter handle. It seemed like a brilliant idea to me at the time as I was in a position where I had no email database but had over 1000 Twitter followers so was interested to see what the tool could do for me. I uploaded my Twitter followers into Fliptop and for free the system took 100 of my followers and appended their email address along with Facebook, Linkedin and around 50 other social profiles (if they have them tied to the same email address). This data was then downloadable into a CSV. I ran it as a test to check the data and it was solid but then did not use again until last week. One of our clients is an established company in their industry and has a database of email addresses that they have built up over the years but they have now decided that they want to start using social media. I think that the key with social media is to build strong 1 to 1 relationships that then scale to more awareness through social sharing. Most of the relationships remain distant e.g. I have 1700 Twitter followers yet I have only probably conversed with 200 of them. If someone messages me or even mentions me then I respond directly as I believe this is an opportunity to strengthen the relationship – you never know where it may lead. The way I use Facebook is different – I rarely accept a friend request of someone I have not already met and most of my FB friends are good friends or old friends. So, going back to our client; they have around 10,000 contacts via email but around 30 Twitter followers and a similar number on Facebook. Therefore to get started in social media they should ideally connect with these people and build up followers and friends amongst those who are warmest to them – their existing customers and contacts. Fliptop has changed a little since I last used it – they are currently just advertising a subscription service for $99 per month OR if you are a Salesforce user then there is a free integration that will append all of the users data for free. Here is a screenshot of the site showing the People Graph service overview – I suggest that you check it out on their site though. As our client does not have a database size that warrants a subscription service I contacted Fliptop to ask if they could be flexible and run a one off append to the email data. I received a response from a really helpful guy called Al Gerona within a few hours that told me that they would be happy to and that they were also launching a new web UI that allows you to run on pay as you go or subscribe via CSV in early 2013. A few days later I had a CSV from my client with all of the email addresses. Al recommended that for the highest match rate that you include First Name, Last Name, Email Address and Location. However – our client pulled the data from their email marketing system and did not want to spend the time cross referencing data so we just went with email address only. Getting social media profile data appended to email addresses:I stuck the file into Dropbox, where Fliptop picked it up and got to work. 48 hours later I was emailed with 2 things: 1) An over view of the data append with percentages Here is a screenshot of the overview: I cannot include a screenshot of the actual data for obvious reasons but you can see here that 23% of the 10,000 contacts have a Twitter account attached to their email address and 5% are on Facebook. I am guessing that Facebook is lower as many people use personal email addresses for Facebook and business email addresses for Twitter, and many of this clients customers perhaps used their business email address when purchasing. An overall data match of around 40% is average according to Fliptop as of course not everyone has a social profile and also some people have multiple email addresses so the one you have in your database may not always match the one they use for one or more social media sites. What can we do with this social data?The first thing that is obvious is that the main opportunity for this client lies with Twitter. If we can get 10% of their current customers, who we know already use Twitter (2300 x 10%), to follow our client then we will have 230 new followers – roughly a 10 x improvement on the current situation. However – we are more ambitious than that and want to achieve around 50% follow back. To succeed with this the first thing that we did was to create an auto-follow list on TweetAdder. We simply uploaded the CSV of Twitter profiles that came back from Fliptop into TweetAdder and created a follow list of the 2300 approx profiles and set it to follow 50 each day. It will take one month and perhaps 10% of them will follow back. Yes, some people will frown on using a tool that Twitter do not publicly approve of. However, my argument on this is that we are using Twitter in line with how Twitter intend the tool to be used. We are connecting with people that are already familiar with our client so that we can strengthen the relationship with them. Tweet Adder is a tool that can enable spamming but it doesn't have to be used as a spamming tool – it can be incredibly effective for building relationships ethically. The thought of individually finding 2300 people on Twitter and individually following them is simply a waste of time when it can be automated. There is one major flaw with this. When we have followed 2ooo of the contacts Twitter will stop us connecting with more unless we have a relatively even ratio of users following us. Simply relying on the probability that a percentage of the people we follow will then follow us back is not enough; we need to ensure that we get as a high percentage as possible following us back so that future scaling is not restricted. To do this we go back to the Fliptop appended data and pull out all of the email addresses that we have the Twitter accounts for. This allows us to email only the people that we know have a Twitter account associated with their email address. This has not been actioned yet but we are going to email all of these people to let them know that the client is now on Twitter and that we will be following them at some point within the next few weeks. We will also place a follow us button in the email that we will ask them to hit. People usually need an incentive to take action so we may need to sweeten things a little for them by offering a discount for them if they follow us back. But, wait a minute this is also the perfect opportunity to scale things. Rather than offering a discount for simply following us back we could ask them to follow us back AND tweet a tweet that we place in the email that contains a certain hashtag. This way we will pick up follows from our contacts as well as some of their contacts – anyone who tweets with the hashtag gets DM'd a unique discount code for the site. I will update the post with the results on how many followers we get through this exercise. So far we are getting about 10% of the people we follow following us back but I am hoping that this will be eclipsed very soon.   |
| Social Media Activism: How Can It Relate To Your Business? Posted: 08 Dec 2012 06:25 AM PST It is debatable whether activism can be a solely online experience in today's digital age. Internet activism can be used to mobilize people in real, not virtual, life, but it also sometimes stands alone. With Anonymous, the Occupy movement and other groups using the Internet to organize and carry out their missions, it is obvious that the Internet and social media play some role in modern day activism. Social media is a forum through which people can get their voices heard. The convenience of this particular forum, though, may cause those who normally would not participate in activism to become a part of the buzz. Not all of these people will venture from behind their computers to attend rallies, sit-ins, etc., but some may become motivated enough to turn their virtual action into real life action. Some argue that social media and Internet activism cause people to become lazy and less likely to go out and protest. However, others argue that social media is a great platform for protest and activist organization with the flexibility to be secretive or public about announcements. Support shared through tweets during the Arab Spring received a great deal of media attention, either glorifying or denouncing its importance. Social media can be especially helpful in raising consciousness of issues on a local and global level. How successful is social media at mobilizing people? It is difficult to measure its true impact because it is nearly impossible to keep track of who goes out to protest and who stays behind their computers after tweeting and posting statuses. However, it is possible to measure the amount of people tweeting about certain subjects and the reach of this content across the Internet. It has been done by numbers of scholars analyzing the importance of social media in various political movements. Many of them had to comb through enormous amounts of hash-tagged content, proving in and of itself that social media had a substantial enough impact to warrant research and discussion, while countless new posts and tweets were being created simultaneously. So, how does this relate to your business? Maybe you are not looking to start a revolution, but you certainly are looking to increase your web presence, traffic and conversion rate. Consider what your business stands for. Are there certain values it operates with? Highlight these values in your posts (without being cheesy), and people with similar beliefs can relate to and empathize with your business. Take a lesson from the activists in how to effectively spread content. Post a message across multiple social media platforms. As a business, your posts will not have the same weight or level of urgency as posts within an activist movement, but you can encourage your followers to re-post your content by creating contests or promotions for re-posting. Mobilizing people to buy into your business can be tricky, but by consistently and thoroughly posting across social media platforms, you can make your business known to consumers and spark their interest. In the same way that people are inspired by the posts of activists and activist movements, your business’s posts can inspire people to consider your type of business differently, gain a greater respect for your business and ultimately, convert to customers.   |
| Blog Post Promotion: “I’ve Blogged. Now What?” Posted: 08 Dec 2012 05:00 AM PST
Understanding how to promote your blog post is critical because it will drive incremental visits to your blog and reads of your blog post, like getting people from the other block to visit your lemonade stand! Blogging is a great way to be found so you can articulate your thoughts and POV. However, it's like a tree that falls in the forest if no one is around; no one will know that you wrote it! Here are simple five ways that you can promote your blog post and avoid the Lemonade Stand Effect!
Also, make sure to use Google Analtyics to help you undertand what referral site (e.g., Twitter vs. LinkedIn) is driving traffice to your blogs posts. Recently one of my blog posts was picked up by SmartBrief and American Express' Open Forum. I would not have known this was the case if not for Google Analytics. Once I found out, I promoted the fact that I was picked up by them both on LinkedIn and drove even more reads! Comment on THIS blog below or reach out to me via the contact form if you have a question on how to promote your content to reach more readers! You can also reach me on Twitter @GerryMoran So you have created some posts that are not getting great readership, let's make some lemonade out of those lemons by following the five ways to promote your blog post. And if you have kids of your own, make sure you let them read this article, since they can use the same tactics to help them sell their lemonade so they can save for college!   |
| Why Google and SEOers Are Not Friends (Nor Ever Will Be) Posted: 07 Dec 2012 04:25 PM PST In a perfect, Google created world there would be no SEO. Ken Krogue wrote an excellent piece for Forbes about this very subject. Below is an excerpt: But what does Google want? They want relevant, real content on the internet that people want to read and tell other people about. If Google doesn’t bring you the most relevant content when you search they aren’t doing their job. So by definition even the word Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means to "game" the Google search engines (and others) to get your valuable content ranked higher than it would be if left alone to the forces of the Web. Let's look at the facts, shall we? As we're seeing more and more, Google's algorithm is becoming smarter. With the recent introduction of the Knowledge Graph, Google's cognitive reasoning is on the brink of sensing words and phrases that logically go together. Logic then says that every form of SEO is slowly being irrelevant, including the long-heralded, "Google will never figure it out," spun content. Spun Content – the Last Remains of “SEO”Now this may seem all too ridiculous to discuss but for those of you who don't know, spun content (the copying of an existing article and inserting several different synonyms for the current words as a means of generating unique content) is the real deal. Check it out below. As you can see, this "blog post" for interstate moving doesn't even make sense. This is the ridiculous world that we live in. With that said, this is one of the few forms of "black hat" SEO that is still showing some life, if only through life-support. Nevertheless, it's a short-lived evil that will eventually reach its demise just like every proceeding form of SEO:
React Accordingly with Your Small BusinessIt's been a long journey in a relatively short period of time. Do you really want to live in fear of what Google's looking for next? Why not just do it the right way from the start? Unless you're in it for a quick payday, most SEO is going to kill you. But for the honest, trustworthy companies, SEO is simply making your customers fall in love with you. How does that happen?
The funny thing about all these things I mentioned? You'd be doing them anyway if it weren't for the internet! The internet has a funny way of screwing with people's minds. You think you can cheat the system. Ask yourself, if you were face to face with a customer, would you:
When you break it down, it's incredibly obvious that Google isn't a "fan" of SEO. We live and operate in a dictatorship. Google rules the internet, plain and simple. If you want to win, it's time you stop playing games and a) take care of your company's legacy or b) pay someone that has the experience and reputation for doing so.   |
| Social Media Marketing Budgets and Small Business Posted: 07 Dec 2012 04:10 PM PST Most of us as individuals are ensconced in the world of social media when it comes to our personal lives. However, for businesses, social media and how to use it for marketing is still a relatively new concept. Many companies do not use social media to its fullest as a marketing tool. This is evidenced by the relatively small budgets that are allocated by companies to use towards "tech" marketing. Tech marketing can include a company's website, blog, any social media marketing, and more. It typically also includes a budget for We are all familiar with the still-struggling economy and the effects it has had on many businesses. So where are companies cutting back? The answer for some is their marketing budget. According to David Bayer, CEO of ChamberofCommerce.com, "software companies are increasing their marketing budgets, while hardware and service companies are scaling back." And of course, amount of money made helps determine the amount of money spent – larger companies with bigger revenue are still able to increase their tech budgets. Some changes have been made in marketing budgets from 2011 to 2012. A survey of companies shows that more money is being allocated for display ads in 2012. However, budgets for email, search engine optimization (SEO) and social marketing are all on a downward slope. The study was done on approximately 91 companies from many industries. So what does all this mean for a small business? Well, it could possibly show that small businesses are having to cut back as well. But are tech and social media marketing really the places to spend less? Probably not. Small businesses in particular tend to use social media heavily for marketing, because it is relatively inexpensive and it is easier to reach a potentially broad audience. It's important for small businesses to keep up with even the smallest changes in the social media world. This could include changes such as the new "sponsored" posts on Facebook (which of course are really just paid advertisements) or any new, popular social media sites that pop up. Allocating for someone who's primary job it is to keep an eye on the company's social media accounts may be a wise move. In a previous post we've identified 5 Niche Social Networks That You Probably Haven't Heard Of…. It's a good idea to explore social networks such as these, particularly if they are related to your business or industry. Smaller social networks are more likely to be cheap or free to use and advertise on. And a key marketing principle is to target people that you are certain will be interested in your product or service. Utilizing these smaller, specific social media sites can be a great way to help stretch your social media and tech budget. As a small business owner or operator, it's important to categorize where your customers are coming from. Many small businesses will find that many people find them via social media or other tech avenues such as email or display ads. It's imperative to take advantage of these options whether you do it yourself or hire an agency. It's critical to use your tech marketing budget to its fullest! Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com which is the largest business directory on the web. ChamberofCommerce.com connects local businesses to their local Chamber of Commerce. Megan also writes business news.   |
So today's question is, "If I own both the .io and .com, which one should I have as a main site, and which one should I use as a redirect? Does it matter?" Everybody probably wants to know the answer, what is Google going to say? Or what is Bing, or any other search engine going to favor as what I use for my top level domain?
You just don't know how many times I have heard this statement. Two years blogging and no real income! It sucks and I was sadly reminded of this problem today when I received an email from a person asking for help after blogging for 5 years without income. This sucks and I would love to personally help everyone who has this problem but it is really up to this person to take the right actions.
The concept behind Pinterest—a virtual pinboard for storing images and their accompanying links—is a simple one, but it has taken off to become one of the most popular social networking sites on the Internet. In fact, during the month of January alone, it 
Little did you know that lemonade stand marketing and content marketing have something in common! Remember the days as a kid when you tried to make some money by opening up a lemonade stand in front of your house? You mom or dad probably spent days trying to help you out from getting the 'store" together, whether is was a table, stand or just a couple of chairs. Think of the things that you had to do before you 'opened shop': make a trip to the store to buy the ingredients, make the sign, decide who was going to be the sales person, come up with the things that you were going to say and then decide how you were going to spend the cash that you made. Finally the day comes and you open shop and no one stops to buy your artisan drinks! In fact, no one drives by at all! Well, the same think could happen to you with out the write blogging strategy! if you don't get the word out!
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