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Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
Twitter has announced that they will have a new version of Twitter coming out. This new version will have all the bells and whistles for businesses so their business can take flight.
Enhanced profile pages will help businesses better establish their brand on the internet. The enhanced profile page will have a better layout, a place for logos and larger photos. It will be much more user-friendly but will be able to handle more tweets so you can always tell who is following you and what they are saying. Businesses will now be able to choose what content they want on their home page at Twitter, along with a videos they choose to share on their page.
Some businesses have already jumped on the bandwagon and are partnering with Twitter for the new enhanced pages. Those on the list include General Electric, Disney/Pixar, American Express, Staples and McDonald’s. Of course, you will have to have the new enhanced pages yourself in order to see the other business’s pages. And they’re not quite rolled out to the public just yet so you’ll have to wait to get yours.
The new enhanced Twitter pages will continue to be free and everyone will eventually have the benefit of these new pages. You can go to fly.twitter.com in order to see how to get the new profile pages for your business.
This is definitely has the potential to bring in more business for those who put the new Twitter brand pages to use. Communication means everything in a business and the new pages will definitely bring your communication with your customers to a new level. This will help you stay in touch with your customers easier and you will be able to quickly see what others are saying about you. That way you will always be on top of the momentum where your business is concerned.
Head on over to Twitter and check out the new enhanced pages. I think you will be very pleased and will enjoy tweeting about it.
Tags: Branding, internet marketing, Social Media, Twitter, website
Posted in Social Media | 5 Comments »
Monday, December 12th, 2011
We have been hearing a lot lately about Facebook. What it means to individuals as well as businesses. Most of us understand basically what Facebook is. It is a way to stay connected with family and friends and to keep current on events in their lives. That is correct. What a lot of us don’t understand is how it will actually help businesses just by staying connected with friends.
In nearly every aspect in our lives we depend on the references or opinions of others that we do trust in order to make informed and responsible decisions. This can be something as simple as where to eat to what companies we will trust our personal information on the internet.
That information is what drives the search engines to small businesses. It’s like the old saying “what goes around, comes around.”
For instance, you are chatting with a family member on Facebook. You may be telling them that you need a new roof replaced. They may have used a company from your area that they were very impressed with themselves. They give you the name, but they don’t have any other information. After you get off Facebook, because you trust that family member, you are going to do a search for that particular company, right? Right. That is just one way Facebooking and Search Engines can work together.
Social Media marketing is only going to grow. Make sure your business stays on track by using social media sites to build your business. Start a fan page. It’s just like word of mouth, but it will be word of friends and family. The family and friends of fans of your page will look at your page. Because they trust their family and friends, they will like your page as well. Your audience will only grow. And getting bigger means more sales for your business.
Tags: advertising, Branding, business, facebook, publicity, search, search engine optimization, small business, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »
Saturday, December 3rd, 2011
It looks as if Facebook has gotten its hands slapped. The Federal Trade Commission announced on Tuesday that a settlement has been reached in regards to Facebook’s privacy practices.
Facebook will now have to conduct privacy audits every two years for the next 20 years. This is a result of the mishandling of Facebook users’ private information back in December 2009. Facebook had made some changes to its privacy notices and did not give user’s a choice if they wanted their information used or not. Facebook was sharing user information with outside developers. This infuriated many users and complaints were filed.
Only the audits are required at the moment, no fines or fees. But, if it happens again, Facebook will be fined $16,000 a day for each time it happens. Also, Facebook will now have to make sure there is a link for the user to use in order to confirm any changes to their profile. It looks as if Facebook better be careful in the future.
Facebook is wildly popular around the world with an estimated 800 million users. You can’t go anywhere anymore without someone asking “are you on Facebook?” Even businesses are jumping on the bandwagon with Facebook pages for their business.
With so many users, it will remain to be seen if everyone will be happy with the stepped up security.
Tags: facebook, publicity, Reputation Management, Social Media, social networking
Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »
Sunday, November 27th, 2011
We live in an interesting day. Most Internet marketers are about five years behind the times. That means they are really just now discovering social media – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn.
Oh, they may have had a Twitter account three years ago. They might have created a YouTube account and a Facebook page. They may have even started answering questions on LinkedIn. Maybe they’ve been working the social media gig for themselves in three or five years. But have they been doing it for their clients? Have they been doing it well?
No and no.
Now that the writing is on the wall, Internet marketers are coming out of the woodwork claiming to be social media experts. But what they done for themselves?
If your social media consultant is stuck on proving value by showing you how many Likes they have on Facebook, you’ve got the wrong consultant. Social media isn’t about how many Likes you have. It’s not about how many retweets you can get on Twitter. It’s not about how many Plusses you can gain. It’s about driving traffic from those social media sites to your own and closing it.
Google Plus has recently announced that it is using realtime search again using Google+ content. You can also search hashtags on Google+. This is just the beginning. Social is about to go haywire.
Tags: google, internet marketing, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
A recent survey shows that Facebook is the king of social media for small businesses.
I think there’s an interesting study here. Why is Facebook so effective for small businesses? 36% say it’s very effective and 47% say it’s moderately so. That’s 83% who say that Facebook has any level of effectiveness. Is it just because there are 800 million users? Or maybe there’s something more.
By contrast, 70% of the respondents said they don’t use Google+. But the really interesting aspect to this survey is the muddle in the middle.
Only 14% of respondents consider Twitter very effective and 32% say it’s moderately effective. But look at the numbers for other social media services:
- Video sharing - 14% and 23%, respectively
- LinkedIn – 10% and 24%, respectively
- Review sites – 7% and 12%, respectively
- Local/daily deals – 5% and 6%, respectively
What’s interesting is that more small businesses are using Google+ than are using the local deals sites. As Frank Reed, with the hype surrounding the Groupon IPO, you’d think more small businesses were using those websites. But I guess that’s not the case.
And of course, I don’t think anyone is surprised that 81% of surveyed small businesses don’t use MySpace (does anyone still use MySpace?). Evidently so. 3% of respondents claim that it is either very effective or moderately effective.
If you own a small business and you are ready for social media, your best bet is probably Facebook.
Tags: facebook, small business, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »
Monday, November 14th, 2011
If you troll the social media websites – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and various social bookmarking websites – you’ll find a lot of online marketers just posting links to their content. It’s pretty bland. But what if these marketers took a different approach? What if they took a less self-interested approach?
Like John Deere.
I like the thinking that went into this social media campaign. It isn’t focused on “buy John Deere tractors” because you really need a pumpkin patch in your back yard. Rather, the focus is on doing something that is good for the community.
John Deere’s name is recognizable. If they do something good for someone else, it will be noticeable. But you don’t have to have a household name to be effective at using social media for community service projects. You can do something nice for someone else no matter who you are. And you are likely to do something that is more noticeable, and noteworthy.
People like to share. They particularly like to share things that are humanistically share-worthy.
If you’ll find a charity that you believe in and go out of your way to promote that charity through social media expecting nothing in return, it will be noticed. If other people believe in that cause too, your efforts will be shared. You’ll be marketing your business indirectly. And that’s the best kind of marketing.
Tags: charity, online marketing, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | 4 Comments »
Friday, November 11th, 2011
Let’s say you want to order a pizza. So you Google “pizza wayzata minnesota.” If there is a popular pizza joint in Wayzata that is getting a lot of +1s on Google’s new social platform Google+, the search engine could tell you that in the SERP. Thanks to the Google Operating System blog for pointing this out.
This could have far-reaching consequences for local businesses trying to increase their search engine positioning.
When people see others enjoying something, they are more likely to enjoy it too. In other words, if a Facebook post has a lot of Likes, it is more likely to get more Likes because of its perceived popular value. The same is true of +1s. And that’s just as true at the local level as it is on any other level. If local prospects see that your business is popular among their friends in the local area, then you are more likely to get a +1 from that prospect or customer as well.
This just points to the necessity of adding a +1 badge to your website. Encourage those +1s and Likes because you never know when one of your blog posts will go viral or become popular through social sharing. That social sharing could in turn translate into higher search engine rankings.
Tags: google, local SEO, search engine rankings, social sharing
Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Google+ business pages haven’t even been out a week yet and already they’re getting criticisms. Petty criticisms at that.
I’m not saying Robert Scoble is wrong, just petty. I hear that the things he wants Google+ to do are on the way. Should Google have added those features before rolling its pages out publicly? Possibly so. But that’s neither here nor there. Google has a habit of rolling out its products in waves and improving upon them over time. That’s just the way they do things. Right or wrong.
Whether you should rush out and get your own Google+ page right now is a decision you’ll have to make for your company. There are arguments for and against, but if you do, don’t complain about what business pages don’t have. Just enjoy it as it is and wait for developments or don’t use them.
Why complain?
If you want to help improve the product, there are ways to do that. You can send an e-mail to the developers of the product with a suggestion. But complaining about what the service doesn’t have and how you wish you’d never heard of them because it doesn’t do what you want it to do, that’s a waste of time.
I think Google+ business pages have a lot of potential. Right now, that’s all it is. Potential. Take it for what it is.
Tags: business pages, google
Posted in Social Media | 4 Comments »
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