| |
Posts Tagged ‘social networking’
Friday, March 29th, 2013
Amazon recently announced the company has acquired social networking site Goodreads, a site for readers and book lovers. The folks at Goodreads are excited about the idea.
One of the reasons for Goodreads’ excitement and optimism is this:
Our members have been asking us to bring the Goodreads experience to an e-reader for a long time. Now we’re looking forward to bringing Goodreads to the most popular e-reader in the world, Kindle, and further reinventing what reading can be.
Could that mean that a Goodreads Kindle app is on the way?
Goodreads is asking users to let them know in the comments on the above thread what type of Kindle experience they’d like to see with Goodreads. This is your chance to let them know how you’d like them to integrate with your Kindle.
But what kind of opportunities will this present for authors? I think there are several ways this acquisition could make marketing better for authors, and particularly for authors who are small business owners.
First, it could open you up to new readers, especially if you publish on the Kindle. Secondly, if a Goodreads Kindle app is on the way, then you may have a more effective way to network with your readers through that app. Putting readers and writers in direct contact through a Kindle reading app just might be the best marketing tool you have.
Tags: Amazon, authors, Goodreads, Kindle, social networking
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
Thursday, February 28th, 2013
Are you looking to take your online relationships a little deeper? That’s quite possible. In fact, these 3 very powerful online-offline networking combinations make it easy to begin relationships through social networking online and make them stronger by taking them deeper offline.
- Tweetups – Tweetups are Meetups for Twitter users. If you are active on Twitter and have a loyal local following, why not invite them to a Tweetup? You can be the host and the star of your own self-organized event while forging strong local relationships with people you met on Twitter, one of the world’s largest social networks.
- Facebook-Foursquare – Everyone’s on Facebook, right? Hopefully, you’ve organized your Facebook friends into lists and one of those lists is your local friends. Why not use Foursquare to connect with your local friends too? Then, when you are sitting down for a cup of coffee or entering your favorite bookstore, you can let your friends know where you are. Invite them to join you.
- Google+ Hangouts – Google+ Hangouts are video meetups online. They’re like Skype on Google. You have to have a Google+ account. Make this a powerful networking tool by inviting people to a seminar you hold at a local venue and broadcast it live on Google+ through the Hangouts feature. You can even incorporate this into your Tweetup event.
Take your social networking to the next level with these 3 very powerful online-offline combinations.
Tags: facebook, Foursquare, google, networking, online networking, social networking, Twitter
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
Friday, December 21st, 2012
Twitter recently rolled out a new service that allows users the ability to download their Twitter archive.
Your first reaction, as Cynthia Boris’s was, may be to ask, Why? There are a few reasons why you may want access to your Twitter archive. For starters, if you hire ghosttweeters or people who post to your Twitter account, then you can go back and look at what has been posted in the past. You can use that for training purposes as well as accountability purposes.
You might consider it prudent, after your initial download, to download your Twitter archive monthly so that you can have ongoing training and accountability sessions with your staff and freelancers.
But what if you are sued? Your Twitter archive could prove to be useful in the discovery phase of your lawsuit and could provide your legal team with valuable information they can use in your defense. Of course, they can also use the information to pick out any strengths on the plaintiff’s case and come up with a viable defense against those.
One of the more valuable uses of your Twitter archive might be the diagnosis of larger business problems such as customer service issues. If you notice a large amount of your time being consumed with customer service issues on Twitter, then you could address those problems.
If your sales or traffic numbers are higher or lower on Twitter than on other social networks, then you could also use that to learn how to better effectively use other networks, or improve your Twittering.
I wouldn’t spend a lot of time looking at past tweets, but a Twitter archive could prove useful in a few small ways.
Tags: archive, social networking, Twitter, Twitter archive
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, December 11th, 2012
It’s easy to get carried away. You want to join everyone you know on Facebook, then on YouTube and Twitter. The next thing you know you’re spending half your day on social networking websites. You’ve added a LinkedIn account, a Google+ account, a Tumblr account, a Pinterest account, and then you have way to much to keep up with. There’s really no need to do all that.
Just about every social networking site you’d think about joining has its benefits. But if you spread yourself too thin, you won’t enjoy any of the benefits of any of them.
You’re a small business owner. You should be running your small business. But you know you should have a social media presence. But which sites should you be on, and how long should you spend on them?
You should first define your target market. After you know the demographics you want to reach, find out which social sites those demographics hang out at. Join those, and only those. Then, restrict yourself to no more than fifteen minutes per day on each site. You really shouldn’t spend more than an hour a day on social networking. The rest of your time should be on running your business.
If you approach online marketing with a level head and with diligence, then you can make it work for you. Don’t go overboard. Manage your time well.
Tags: online marketing, social networking
Posted in Social Media | 4 Comments »
Friday, December 7th, 2012
Yesterday, while no one was looking, Google+ introduced Communities. Evidently, a bunch of people were looking because within minutes hundreds of new communities started appearing on the social network. As of this writing, some communities are approaching 10,000 members. Not bad for a 24-hour period.
Communities within the context of Google+ is a good idea. You can connect with people with similar interests as yours in a safe environment that is also searchable.
As I’ve said before, the power of Google+ lies in the fact that it is owned by Google. If you don’t have a Google+ account right now and you are trying to brand yourself online or engage in online marketing in any way, then you should get an account. Future SEO will be determined a great deal by what you do inside Google+. Communities is just one more aspect of that.
Communities allow you to start one or join one. The first thing you should do is search for communities by subject matter. Are there any existing communities about your topic? If so, join them.
Give them a little time to get going. Communities are still new on Google+, so don’t expect them all to be very active for at least 30-60 days. If you’re not satisfied with how things are going in the communities you’ve joined, then start your own. Here are a few tips for starting your own Google+ Community.
- Pick a branded name, if possible.
- If it isn’t feasible, choose a keyword for your name.
- Make your community open to the public. Test how Google controls spam in your open community before making it private. If possible, keep it open forever.
- Invite others to join your community immediately.
- Start conversations. Don’t wait for your members to do it.
- If you need help, promote a few die-hard fans to moderator and let them make decisions.
Remember, communities are for people. Get others involved and don’t be afraid to give up a little control.
Tags: community, google, SEO, social networking
Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, November 20th, 2012
Pinterest has announced that businesses are welcome. Being one of the fastest growing social networks for the past year, a lot of people flocked to Pinterest to set up an account. And a lot of those users have been businesses. Now there’s good news. You are no longer “just tolerated;” you are welcome.
If you don’t have a business presence at Pinterest currently and you are ready to add a visual branding element to your social networking, you can set up a business brand page. If you do have an account in a business name, then you can convert that account to a business brand page. The new direction also includes new features.
Here are a few new features that your business can take advantage of at Pinterest:
- Add a Pin It button to your business website
- Add a Follow button to your website
- Invite people to follow your Pinterest boards from your website
- Add Pinterest branding to your marketing brochures and other collateral
I encourage you to check out sample business pages and find out how you can use Pinterest brand pages to promote your business more effectively.
Social media marketers have a lot more options available to them today. You are not relegated to Facebook and Twitter any more, though you can incorporate them into your overall marketing plan alongside Pinterest and other services.
Tags: Branding, Pinterest, Social Media, social networking
Posted in Branding | 4 Comments »
Thursday, November 15th, 2012
Online reputation management is as much social as it is anything. That is, you can manage your online reputation using social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Rich Gorman at Marketing Pilgrim offers three suggestions to help small business owners more effectively use social media for reputation management. Here are his suggestions:
- Use the right social media platforms
- Create more content
- Use keywords more effectively
Every social media platform has its advantages. What are you trying to accomplish? You don’t have to use Facebook just because everyone else is using Facebook. If it doesn’t make sense for your business, then use the social networks that are going to help you enhance your reputation more.
If you aren’t creating social content, then you aren’t really networking and you aren’t managing your reputation. Online, it’s all about the content. You have to use your content on social networks to engage other users and build relationships. That’s the only way to keep your reputation alive and encourage a positive view of your personality and your business. Create more content.
As you create more social media content you should also be aware of how it will be received by the search engines. You can rank your social content in the search engines by optimizing it around specific keyword phrases.
Reputation management, social media, and SEO are all intertwined. They are no longer separate menu items on the same dinner plate. They go hand in hand. Savvy online marketers understand that and act accordingly.
Tags: online reputation, online reputation management, Reputation Management, SEO, Social Media, social networking
Posted in Reputation Management | 5 Comments »
Friday, November 9th, 2012
Evergreen content is content that never goes out of fashion. It is not trendy. It is not here today, gone tomorrow. It has value that will remain for a long time. As its name suggests, evergreen content is content that will always be in demand.
So what does it look like exactly? And how do you produce it?
Here are 3 important qualities that your content needs in order to be considered evergreen:
- Intrinsic and lasting value – The value of your content must exist in the content itself. It has intrinsic content. But it’s also content that will be just as valuable next year or next decade as it is the day it is created.
- Contains SEO value - Evergreen content is also content that is searchable. That means it targets the right keywords at just the right intensity. Because the content itself has intrinsic and lasting value, if you SEO it properly, it will be searchable and the people who are looking for that value will find it easily.
- Shareable – Evergreen content is also shareable. It’s content that people want to share with their friends on their favorite networks.
Evergreen content has long term value. It will be around for a long time because a lot of people see the value.
Not every piece of content you write will be evergreen. No one can produce a perfect track record, but you should look for opportunities to create evergreen content as often as possible. Then do it.
Tags: content, SEO, social networking
Posted in SEO for Small Business | 6 Comments »
Thursday, November 8th, 2012
Images are becoming more and more important in online marketing. From Pinterest to infographics, savvy online marketers are employing more images and using them quite effectively to present their messages to their target markets on their blogs and websites, in their social media circles, and wherever they build content.
Images serve three useful purposes online:
- They provide a graphic way for you to communicate your message. Remember, a picture (re: graphic or image) is worth a thousand words.
- Images also open up another channel of search engine optimization for your web pages, blog posts, or social media posts. All it takes to optimize each image is an alt tag and some associated text. Target your keywords in both of those and you increase your SEO possibilities.
- Make your marketing more interesting and graphic-oriented. Studies have been done that show that image-based marketing messages are far more likely to be shared and go viral than mere text-based messages.
If you want to juice up your online marketing efforts – whether it be on your own website or blog, your social media outposts, or your e-mail marketing initiatives, add images. Why do you think Pinterest is so popular? It isn’t because of the pretty colors. OK, maybe that’s a part of it, but still, it wouldn’t be Pinterest without the images.
Tags: images, online marketing, search engine optimization, Social Media, social networking
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 5 Comments »
Monday, November 5th, 2012
Constant Contact reports that more than 50% of top brands are using Instagram in their marketing plans. But they aren’t the only businesses using Instagram. Many small businesses are using it as well.
Instagram is a smartphone photo sharing app. It’s the smartphone version of Flickr and Photobucket. But what can you do with it?
I’ve identified 4 ways you can use Instagram to help promote your small business to your target market or current clientele.
- Daily images – No matter what business you are in, you can use Instagram to share a daily image of your business in action or its employees performing their duties. Candid photos are best, but some small businesses are making effective use of staged photos too.
- Tell stories – With Instagram, not only can you share your photos, but you can tell the story behind them. Take interesting photos of your business, employees, and customers, and tell the story behind them. People love stories.
- Integrate it with your other social media – Integrate Instagram into your current online marketing strategy by sharing those photos on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. Get more exposure for your small business.
- Make it a game – Reward excellent employees with worldwide recognition, or have a photo lottery where you take a random photo of a customer interaction opportunity once a week, then upload that photo to Instagram and reward the customer with a gift certificate.
Instagram isn’t for everyone, but you can make it work for your small business. Make a plan, then work your plan.
Tags: Instagram, small business, social networking
Posted in Social Media | 6 Comments »
|
|
|
|
| |
|
