Why believe an advertisement if you have the advantage of social media? Might you have confidence in an advertisement over your pals suggestions and critiques?

Naturally you wouldn’t! Therefore, I believe Social media marketing stands out as the most sincere form of marketing for your enterprise.

Let’s address some important issues for your company:

1. Do you know what folks are saying about your business on Social media web sites?

Every day I log into Facebook and Twitter and take a peek at what my buddies and friends are saying. It is not uncommon for my pals to write-up critiques, positives, negatives and feedback regarding an experience with a nearby business.

Surely you’ve observed Facebook status updates quoting points like “Wow! That fresh Maccas burger is the best” or “Many thanks to TNTS for their amazing assistance regarding my financial planning” and even “I really like Minilink. It saves me an hour or so travel every day!.” On the other hand, I’m also positive you have observed remarks including “Never heading again to XYZ restaurant on Cathedral St ever again. Cuisine was awful and waiting staff ended up being impolite” or “I cannot believe how bad the service ended up being done on my small vehicle by XYZ” or perhaps “Don’t visit Jim’s. They are too expensive and very over-rated.”

So do you know what individuals are alleging about your business? Can you deal with the concerns or thank individuals for beneficial suggestions? All of those reviews and assessments are greatly valuable to your organization. They are able to help you make knowledgeable decisions about specific items, personnel, solutions etc.

This sort of data is completely invaluable to the good results of your organization.

2. Why is Social media so truthful and why is it essential to your enterprise?

Did you know that 78% of peer critiques affect folks to believe what they are saying whilst on the other hand, only 14% of individuals believe a commercial? The reason is simple – people think what peers say a lot more than they believe a sales pitch, or an enterprise advertisement.

They’ve a feeling of confidence in suggestions and reviews more so, than your enterprise. They understand that you will continually praise your products and services, puffing that ‘you are the best’, ‘you have the cheapest prices’ and ‘you really are a market leader’. Consumers don’t wish to know about all of this. They want evidence! They want outsider information!

Shoppers are willing to reward and criticise. It really is straightforward to publish a tweet or update a Facebook status showing an encounter with your organization. Many social networking members write-up info that is regular to daily existence i.e. “on my way to work.” They are the form of customers who definitely are not inconvenienced to publish about dealings with you. More than half of Twitter and Facebook customers put up daily – so be conscious of what exactly is said about you!

3. Social media marketing coverage drives Search Engine Optimisation (Seo)

Search engine optimization is quite simply a strategy or number of techniques used to generate your enterprise to a higher rank on major search engines, like Google. Such exposure creates further site visitors to your website, increased sales and ultimately, an elevated bottom-line.

Social media marketing will support drive your Search engine optimization. Prolonged communications on Social media marketing sites will entice interest in your enterprise. Without having Social media interactions, it’s virtually unattainable to improve your Seo. The 2 move together and so are both critical to web marketing methods for your business.

Incorporating a powerful Social media marketing and Search engine optimization technique is just not a simple course of action. In very competitive industries, it could consider some months before highest outcomes are achieved. For the strategy to be sustainable, it requires ongoing focus and optimisation.

In the event you want help with Search engine optimization or Social media marketing, make sure to contact a professional. Some of your rivals currently have set up Search engine optimization and Social media methods in place. Make sure not to fall any further behind. Now is definitely the time for you to act.

Have you created a Fan Page, but now you’re wondering – “How Do I Get People to ‘Like’ my Page?” If so, you’re not alone. Many people struggle with getting Fans. Here are 10 ways to get more Fans.

1. Create A Customized Welcome Page – Creating a Customized Welcome Page is an excellent way to increase your number of fans. Statistics show that it will help you turn 72% of your visitors into fans.

To create a custom page, you can use the Facebook application, Static HTML iframe tabs.

If you’re not familiar with HTML code, then you can go to Pagemodo.com. Pagemodo is free, and they have ready-made templates that you can use. So, all you have to do is just pick a template.

There’s also a website, Woobox.com, where you can add sweepstakes, coupons, and more to your Fan page.

2. Email your current customer list & invite them to your new Fan page – You can send a nice email out to your current list letting them know about your new page, and you could say something like – I would be honored if you would click ‘like’ to become a fan of my new page (and make sure to include a link to your page).

3. Post Links on your Social Media Profiles like Twitter, LinkedIn, & Your Personal Profile on Facebook – For example, in your Bio on your Facebook Personal Profile, you could include something like: Come hang out with me on my Fan page at: facebook.com/______________. In your Twitter or LinkedIn Bio, you could type: Connect with me on FB at: facebook.com/____________.

4. Use Facebook as Your Page - When you login to Facebook, you can click the down arrow in the upper right-hand corner next to “Home”, then click “Use Facebook as Page”. When you click on this, you will now be interacting with people as your Page (NOT as you personally). So, a strategy that will help you get more fans is to click “Use Facebook as Page” and then comment on other Fan Pages as Your Page.

5. Use Facebook Ads – You can always purchase ads on Facebook to drive traffic to your Fan page. If you use this strategy, make sure to target your ads appropriately and start out small. Start out by only spending a few dollars a day and testing out different ads, so you can determine which ads work best for you (before you spend a lot of money).

6. Add the Facebook “Like” Box to your Website – When you add this to your website, then people can click “like” and become a fan of your Page (directly from your website). When people come to your website and they see that you have a large following on your Fan page, that also helps build up your credibility.

7. Ask Friends to Share your Page – All Fan pages have a “Share” link on the left-hand side of the page. You can always ask your friends to come to your page & click on the “Share” link. This way, your friends can share your page with their followers.

8. Add Your Fan Page Link to your Email Signature – If you do this, then every time you send an email to someone, they’ll see your Fan Page link in your signature. So, they can easily click on the link to go to your Fan Page.

9. Invite Friends – On the right-hand side of every Fan page, there’s an “Invite Friends” link. Simply click on that link in order to invite your friends to become a Fan of your Page.

10. Create an Event Launching your Page – You can create an Event called something like: “Launch of the _______ Page”. When creating the Event, in the More Info section, you could type 1 sentence about your Fan page and then type: I would be honored if you could click ‘like’ to become a fan of my new page at: facebook.com/____________” (Always include a link to your page. If you don’t include the link, then people may not know where to go to access the page).

When you’re Selecting the Guests to invite to your Event, you’ll see a link to “Add a Personal Message”. I recommend clicking on that link & typing the same thing again: I would be honored if you could click ‘like’ to become a fan of my new page at: facebook.com/____________

If you have your Fan page Link in 2 places, there’s a better chance that your friends will click on it in order to become a fan.

LinkedIn, which has recently reached 50 million user milestones, also has long been considered as a social networking site for professionals. If you’re in business, it is basically expected that you have a profile there.

But with the more mainstream platforms like Twitter and Facebook being used for business purposes, some professionals are neglecting their LinkedIn profiles. While LinkedIn is certainly not as dynamic as other social media sites, it still provides a lot of value, if you use it correctly. So whether you’re new to LinkedIn or a veteran, here are some of the things you should consider incorporating into your LinkedIn strategy.

Procedure to Complete your Company LinkedIn Listing:

An expert solopreneur, will just take 30 minutes or less time to set up the company profile pages, but being new or a veteran, the below checklist will help to save time and make sure you’re ready to complete all the information when you log in. In addition to the company overview page, you’ll see tabs for career, products and services, and analytics. Here’s the information you’ll need to complete your company overview page.

Company Name:

Make sure that your company name listing matches with the name in your profile. Because if you use LLC or Inc; in your own profile then use the same name in your company site also.

Who is going to administer? LinkedIn wants to know who will administer your company profile. In this case you will have two choices. All employees can administer your company profile with a valid email address registered, or else designated users only can administer your company profile.

Logos:

Logos can be used. A standard logo as well as a square logo can be uploaded. This can be used for networking updates.

Description about the Company:

In the company description section, use this opportunity to describe “who you are and what you do.” In this case think & act not only how you may be successful in a small scale, but if you are planning to grow your company in large scale or to go after big companies, then present your company as an entity.

Twitter & Blog Feeds:

Bringing in your Twitter updates and blog feed keeps your company page active and relevant. Also update the pages with current information regularly.

Company Type, Size & Links:

Select from options, the company type and company size, which describes your status. Your company website URL link can go to your home page or to a services or gallery page accordingly.

Company Details & Locations:

Main company, industry allows you to choose within the LinkedIn categories. Then, you will have to select the company’s operating status and the year founded, this is an optional entry.

The last step is the locations. You can add up to five different location addresses, and then click publish. Finally, your LinkedIn company profile is active.

Product & Services:

In next tab is about the product/service option, category, name and description. First, you have to choose between product and service. Next, you’ll have to select a category. Then, you’ll have to name your product or service, add a logo to it, write a description, list the key features, post a disclaimer, add a URL, list the company contacts, add a promotional link and then link to a YouTube video if you have one.

You don’t have to complete each & every step, but you can see how much opportunity LinkedIn gives you to promote your business from within a company page. The best part is you don’t have to pay attention to the page or design it until you want to do it.

Traffic & Audience Analytics:

The last tab is a rich resource that adds insights and value to your page. Here, you can track the page views and unique visitors for your overview, careers and products and services pages. You can even compare how your company is doing with similar companies.

Invite:

Now you’re all ready to invite people & friends. You can add a follow button to your website or blog. LinkedIn makes it easy with a line of code; if that seems too complicated, just add a “follow our company on LinkedIn” call to action with the company page URL to your email address and in all other promotional materials.

How much time do you spend online?

According to a time use survey compiled by ComScore Media Metric, the average American spends 33.9 hours on the Internet every week. Depending on age and other demographics, this number can double! And for those lucky individuals whose occupations rely primarily on computers: the Internet commands their lives and they are never not connected.

Computers have drastically changed the technological landscape. The Internet has facilitated efficiency in a number of offline processes. We use the web to communicate with our family, friends and business acquaintances in real-time chats. Books and other multimedia are available for online viewing and instant download. We can even shop for gifts online – often offered at a deeper discount than in brick-and-mortar stores! The Internet has revolutionized the way that we live, as we now spend one-sixth of our lives in the digital world.

Exhibit 1: 100 Most-Visited Websites by category, according to Google Ad Planner

Where are We Actually Spending Our Time Online?

Google has compiled a list of the 100 most-visited websites in the United States. (Being the modest company that they are, Google has chosen to omit their website and statistics from the study.) These 100 websites are sorted into six categories: social networking, search engines, shopping, entertainment, business and software.

The Internet can deliver information instantaneously, so naturally search engines and other information-related websites comprise the most popular category – sites ranging from web portals, such as Yahoo! and Bing, to encyclopedias and other how-to pages, such as Wikipedia and eHow. Closely tailing search engines are online shopping and other e-commerce websites – pages such as Amazon, eBay and Walmart – followed, in descending order, by the categories Entertainment, Social Networking, Business and Software.

Social networks are defined as any and all websites that are personal communities, professional networks, blogs, dating communities, deal of the day websites and other content sharing sites. It is significant that social media occupy the fourth largest category, as these websites have only gained popularity within the past few years. In fact, two of the top three websites in America are “social” sites. The number one site, Facebook, is the largest social network in the world with over 800 million loyal users. YouTube trails behind this social giant as the second most popular social network, and the third most popular website in the US.

Which Social Sites are Americans Frequenting the Most?

Americans have become fully absorbed in the social networking infrastructure. According to Nielsen, social media has engrossed 22% of our total time online. The chart, “Total Reach of Social Networks,” reveals the percentage of Americans that are logged-into the 15 most- popular networks in the country. The most popular social network is Facebook, with a total national reach of over 67%. Close in proximity is YouTube, with 54.7% of the population viewing, sharing and commenting on videos posted by others around the globe. Other social networks are used by less than half of the population – networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn, and blogging websites such as Blogspot and WordPress.

Another sub-category of social networks has made it to the top 100. Within the past year, the deal-of-the-day industry has flourished. There are dozens of competing websites, but the two that have thus far generated the bulk of the traffic and seized the largest marketing share are Living Social and Groupon. Consumers flock to these websites for the great discounts on a variety of products, services and activities. Only 5% of the United States population is connected to these sites. However, in another year it is predicted that the reach of these sites will more than double as the popularity of these sites is accelerating at an enthusiastic rate.

Exhibit 2: Total Reach of Social Networks in the US, according to Google Ad Planner

Which Americans are on Social Networks?

Of the 310 million individuals in the United States, at least 210 million are actively participating in social networks. Who are these individuals? According to Google, the majority of users are women. Females are more active participants in social media than their counterparts. Women are especially more active on deal of the day social networks – where users typically register in order to receive coupons. In fact, the only social network where men have the greater presence is LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network. This may be correlated to the fact that men hold higher-level positions in the US workforce than women. Currently out of the running Fortune 500 companies, there are only 16 female CEOs (as told by USA Today). Even more shocking is that this is the greatest number of women
that have ever held this position at the same time.

Exhibit 3: Social Media Usage by Gender in the US, according to Google Ad Planner

In regards to age, the correlation shows that younger individuals prefer more active social networks, whereas older individuals prefer networks where there is an emphasis on content retrieval. Senior citizens are most active on deal of the day sites, which provide coupons and other group discounts for those that choose to lead active lifestyles. On the other hand, the media of choice for younger generations appear to be networks where regular, active participation is encouraged. Teenagers and kids flock to social sharing sites such as YouTube and Photobucket, an image hosting website. For young adults, blogs and other weblog sites that facilitate comments and sharing are most popular. Overall, the group that has the largest presence on social media is adults. The majority of the users of the 15 most-visited social sites are between the ages of 35 and 54 years of age.

Exhibit 4: Social Media Usage by Age in the US, according to Google Ad Planner

How Important are Demographics?

The Internet and technologies that make the Internet more accessible for us have been strongly embedded into modern culture. Laptops, smart phones, tablets and mp3 players with Internet access are consumed by all age groups. Internet users flee to the web not just for information, but also to shop, communicate and consume multimedia. The increase in Internet consumption has led us to spend more time in the digital world and less time in the real world – one-sixth less time to be exact.

The media patterns of target audiences are changing. Marketers need to redevelop their marketing strategies in order to better influence target audiences and stimulate them to consume. The most successful advertisers are those that are able to reach their audiences through multiple channels. In modern America, this requires integrating an online marketing strategy.

Using the demographics of our ideal buyer persona, we can learn which websites our target audiences are frequenting. These trending websites will prove to be the best online locations to advertise to these individuals. If the ideal buyer is a 35 year old soccer mom, then research shows that it would be useful to advertise on deal of the day websites that women in this age group tend to frequent. Alternatively, if our ideal candidate is a business executive that works long hours for a prestigious law firm, LinkedIn advertisements would be the indisputable way to go.

All in all, social media shows us that demographics matter. Using factors such as age, gender and nationality we can determine an online marketing strategy that will lead to effective advertising results. More targeted marketing leads to increased sales and a healthier business.

Sources

“Average Time Spent Online per U.S. Visitor in 2010.” The ComScore Data Mine. 13 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Nov. 2011.

“Led by Facebook, Twitter, Global Time Spent on Social Media Sites up 82% Year over Year.” Web log post. Nielsen Wire. The Nielsen Company, 22 Jan. 2011. Web. 09 Nov. 2011.

Petrecca, Laura. “Women ‘Fortune’ 500 CEOs Hits Record” USATODAY.com. USA Today. A Gannett Company, 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.

“Social Networks/Blogs Now Account for One in Every Four and a Half Minutes Online.” Web log post. Nielsen Wire. The Nielsen Company, 15 Jan. 2010. Web. 09 Nov. 2011.

“The 100 Most-visited Sites: United States.” Doubleclick Ad Planner. Google, Jan. 2011. Web. 03 Nov. 2011.

“US & World Population Clock.” Census Bureau Home Page. U.S. Census Bureau, 31 Oct. 2011. Web. 09 Nov. 2011.

Caitlin Rambo currently works as Marketing Assistant for Modern Mail. For more information about this article, or for other articles by her, please visit her company’s website at: www.modernmail.com.

If kids, soon-to-be-adults and millions of not-so-young adults are your future audience, then you need to have a Facebook Business Page as you need to be where your audience is. And, today, our children, teens, young adults and even older adults like my former room mates and my ex (who deny they are addicted to Facebook) can be found updating their profile, commenting and changing their status updates regularly.

The New York Times even wrote an article recently that showed kids are finding crafty ways to get around the increasing number of Facebook bans their schools are implementing. One eighth grader, who preferred not to be named, said he coached a school administrator on avoiding the ban last year. “She hated not being able to get on Facebook at work and asked for my help one day in the office,” the boy explained, more than a little sympathetic to her plight. “What could I do?”

It came as no surprise to me, and it’s speaking volumes of the need for small businesses, as much as they want to continue down that stream of FB Denial, to get on board and create a Facebook business page. It is time for them to put themselves in front of this next generation of Facebook addicts.

Need more proof?

5 Reasons Why You Must Setup a Facebook Fan Page Fast!

1) Kids, soon adults, and millions of young and not-so-young adults are your future audience and they are all there, “friending” Justin Bieber under their covers (like my daughter last night) when they should be asleep.

2) With over 600 million users and almost 50% of them on Facebook daily…. stop…. think about it…..AND over 40% of existing businesses already up and running on it, you want your business to be where your customers and potential customers are going, right? If you knew that your customers were passing by one of the huge billboards in Times Square every day and those billboards didn’t cost millions per month to be advertising there, you would want to be up there…wouldn’t you?

3) Your Facebook business page is like the huge billboard in Times Square except for the fact that it’s free. Your customers are there, their friends are there. And you can say a heck of a lot more on a FB page than you can on a billboard.

4) The search engines love a Facebook Business Page. Because a business page is a public URL and not a private one, your site will have a much easier time making it to the top of a Google search than your website. That’s unless you’ve invested a lot of $ into SEO (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

5) As mentioned earlier, your competition already has a Facebook business page, and not because they want to share about their favorite rice and beans recipe. The “like” button has become the new “link.” Many online marketers, myself included now believe that the Facebook “like” button is becoming just as significant as backlinks to a website. In other words, the more “likes” your page has, the greater the chance of it ranking high in the search engines for your specific field and keywords. So think of it as a link and encourage your customers to press it. Every time you update something on your page these customers will now see it as they have been “linked” to it.

There are so many good reasons to create one of these Facebook business pages I could blather on and on about them forever. For now, think about the math. The average Facebook page has 140 friends. When you post to Facebook, your “friends” and all their “friends” will view your post. Can you spell V-I-R-A-L? As insane as it might sound, there’s a reason why Shop Rite wants you to “like” them on Facebook.

With over 800 million users worldwide, everyone knows that Facebook is now the hottest social networking internet site to use for online marketing. Many businesses have already taken steps to capitalize on this massive marketing opportunity. But do you know about the problems with Facebook that you should REALLY be concerned about?

Before devoting too much of your marketing budget or even your leisure time to Facebook, you should understand the items on this list of the Top Ten Things About Facebook That Make People Mad.

Facebook, as a website, really doesn’t offer that much if you think about it. I mean, if you’re not into Farmville or Mafia Wars, what does it do? Well, it does allow you to have your private information shared with complete strangers — or even people you know. Do we really want that? Even the navigation is difficult.

Facebook doesn’t support the Open Web, because to access everything you must be a member and logged in. They claim to own all of your data, then do not make it openly accessible to others.

Facebook makes it almost impossible to actually delete your account, so all of your data will remain online even after you deactivate your account.

Facebook is not technically competent when it comes to protecting your data, or else they just don’t care enough to really try. There have been major glitches such as public access of private profiles.

Facebook is tricking their users into giving advertisers information about themselves. They do this by not disclosing how Facebook applications make all of your data accessible not just to Facebook itself but also to developers, who may not even have privacy standards.

Facebook seems to have declared war on privacy protections. Facebook wants to know everything about you, own that data, and then make it available to everybody else on Facebook, including advertisers. They have a stated policy that all data should be available to everybody (your data, that is).

Your supposedly private data is shared with applications, and the developers who write them. Think about it: all your data is shared with applications that you install unknowingly. This make it potentially available to almost anyone.

Facebook has bullied (by suing) people who have had the fortitude to tell the truth about how Facebook shares private data. They don’t want their members to know how much data is really being made available to advertisers, developers and others. So, it appears they do believe in a right to privacy, at least when it comes to their own shenanigans.

Facebook’s CEO has a documented history of unethical behavior. He has been accused of various things in the past but I won’t repeat them here. (That’s what Google is for, right?) Perhaps where there is smoke there is also fire. There are plenty of past indicators of ethical issues surrounding all of Facebook’s operations and dealings with members. Caveat emptor.

Facebook’s Terms Of Service are completely one-sided. They state that not only do they own your data, but if you don’t keep it accurate, they can deactivate your account. This is because they need all the data to be current to be useful to advertisers. So we are all working hard to make more advertising revenue for Facebook! It’s almost like we are Facebook slaves.

Conclusion

I guess I’ve decided that if they terminate my account: so what? I think I can learn to live without Facebook. How about you?

If you want to stay on Facebook, my recommendation is you understand how your data will be used, and be careful about what you post as content or in your profile.

The recent Facebook changes are game changing. For most this is scary; for us (and hopefully for you, too) it’s exciting! Facebook has managed to make our everyday activities even more social and has created a way for us to share our lives via a virtual scrapbook. This tool lets you feature all your old and new Facebook memories with integrated ways to express yourself through different “lifestyle apps.” Luckily for you, we read every article, and we watched the entire 1-hour, 40-minute f8 presentation, so we are here to condense the information for you as much as possible.

Here are the Facebook changes you should know about:

Only a few things are really going away; it’s the experience and interface that are changing. Here are the latest and greatest new features of Facebook:

The Facebook Timeline — “The story of your life”

The Timeline is the central change in the Facebook revamp. It is your new Facebook profile, completely reorganized with a different way to display your profile picture — a giant picture of you (your cover photo) at the top and a smaller picture (your profile picture) layered at the bottom right of the cover picture. The way the new timeline is set up allows you to keep all of those past memories, updates and posts in an organized manner through a timeline. You can scroll to any time period via the timeline on the side of your “cover photo.” In the f8 conference, Mark Zuckerberg talked about your old profile being what you would tell someone you met within the first 5 minutes: where you work, where you went to school, where you live, etc. This is all condensed and placed below your profile picture now.

From your new Facebook profile you are also able to see things that you recently shared, your recent activity and things you were tagged in. Your apps are now tiles below your cover picture, and there is a map that keeps track of where you’ve been. Anytime you upload a picture, you can tag it with geography — mapping out the place you were when you created the post.

On your timeline, you can sort through old posts very easily, making it much faster than the previous process. The farther back you go, the more condensed it will be, ranking what Facebook sees as the most important posts. You can change that by either hiding a post you don’t think is that important or starring a post you feel should be highlighted.

Open Graph Features

Open graph is another new Facebook change. It feeds all of your activity into a ticker as well as into timeline but not to the newsfeed. You can choose to see this as a bad thing or a good thing. On the one hand, fans’ activity on your page will not show up in their friends’ newsfeeds, but on the other hand, everything will show up in the ticker.

The biggest part of the open graph feature (which has its own EdgeRank type of algorithm) is the way it allows you to interact with other media. Apps no longer have to ask for permission to post content to Facebook over and over again. Instead, a new Facebook permissions screen explains exactly what types of stories will be shared the first time you give an app permission to post to your Facebook. Once completed, it will no longer have to ask for permission.

Facebook has also divided your updates into two different categories: Posts and Activities. Posts show up in the newsfeed; activities show up in the ticker.

There are four main categories for “lightweight” activity:

- Communication
- Media
- Games
- Lifestyle

Partnerships and Apps

Facebook has created some major partnerships that will lead the way into the next social marketing trend: lifestyle apps! Since getting your fan page content to show up in a feed seems downright impossible at this point, getting someone to interact with your lifestyle app may be the answer!

Trailblazing partners:

Yahoo News — opt into this service to see what news stories your friends are reading

Spotify — discover more music through your friends. You can see who’s listening to what in the ticker, and if you hover over it, you can listen to it.

Hulu — same deal as Spotify but with movies and TV.

The Like Button

In addition to the “Like” button, you will now have more options to choose from. They will now be accompanied by branding actions.

“Before on Facebook it was about getting people to ‘Like’ the brand. Now, it’s about getting people to take social actions enabled by that brand,” says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation for 360i.

The key here is to find out what action(s) you will brand your business with and how you will market that. The new Facebook changes are forcing us to think of marketing in terms of storytelling; adding your personality — the different facets of your life — to your timeline will be the new novelty. Zuckerberg explained he did this because liking something was daunting for some — like an implied endorsement of a product or brand. Now, you are merely “sharing your life story.”

These “activity buttons” are more social by design and will be a key to a successful social strategy.

Email Notifications

Facebook will no longer send you an email anytime there is an update related to your profile. You will only be receiving “important updates” that are deemed important by Facebook and summary emails about stories you may have missed. This is an automatic change; if you want to continue receiving an email for every update, you have to go into your settings and change that.

The big news: you will be receiving reports, and eventually you will receive reports from your lifestyle apps. Zuckerberg hinted that this will eventually be something that can be shared. For example if you are using the Nike run app, you can share your yearly running report with your Facebook friends.

What Shows Up in Newsfeeds?

Your new Facebook newsfeed ranks things that it feels are your top stories at the top of the page, and then puts everything else below that. Facebook has added a control in the top right of each story that users can check to unmark a “top story.” Facebook will use that information over time to target who/what you find important so that your newsfeed is optimized for you. This means users have more control over their newsfeeds, which means as a brand you will have to find a way to come up with relevant content that users will want to opt into. Otherwise, your visibility will be next to nothing (except for in the ticker).

What Next?

Our advice: begin strategizing now and plan for what’s coming next for brand pages or be left in the dust. These changes are huge, but they are good! Also, pay close attention to user activity because as soon as users get over the fact that Facebook has changed again, you will probably see an increase in activity and users will probably spend more time on Facebook than before, playing around with and adding content to their timelines. Because in the end, everyone wants to share their story — people love talking about themselves. So as a brand, the key is figuring out how to be a part of it.

Why believe an advertisement if you have the advantage of social media? Might you have confidence in an advertisement over your pals suggestions and critiques?

Naturally you wouldn’t! Therefore, I believe Social media marketing stands out as the most sincere form of marketing for your enterprise.

Let’s address some important issues for your company:

1. Do you know what folks are saying about your business on Social media web sites?

Every day I log into Facebook and Twitter and take a peek at what my buddies and friends are saying. It is not uncommon for my pals to write-up critiques, positives, negatives and feedback regarding an experience with a nearby business.

Surely you’ve observed Facebook status updates quoting points like “Wow! That fresh Maccas burger is the best” or “Many thanks to TNTS for their amazing assistance regarding my financial planning” and even “I really like Minilink. It saves me an hour or so travel every day!.” On the other hand, I’m also positive you have observed remarks including “Never heading again to XYZ restaurant on Cathedral St ever again. Cuisine was awful and waiting staff ended up being impolite” or “I cannot believe how bad the service ended up being done on my small vehicle by XYZ” or perhaps “Don’t visit Jim’s. They are too expensive and very over-rated.”

So do you know what individuals are alleging about your business? Can you deal with the concerns or thank individuals for beneficial suggestions? All of those reviews and assessments are greatly valuable to your organization. They are able to help you make knowledgeable decisions about specific items, personnel, solutions etc.

This sort of data is completely invaluable to the good results of your organization.

2. Why is Social media so truthful and why is it essential to your enterprise?

Did you know that 78% of peer critiques affect folks to believe what they are saying whilst on the other hand, only 14% of individuals believe a commercial? The reason is simple – people think what peers say a lot more than they believe a sales pitch, or an enterprise advertisement.

They’ve a feeling of confidence in suggestions and reviews more so, than your enterprise. They understand that you will continually praise your products and services, puffing that ‘you are the best’, ‘you have the cheapest prices’ and ‘you really are a market leader’. Consumers don’t wish to know about all of this. They want evidence! They want outsider information!

Shoppers are willing to reward and criticise. It really is straightforward to publish a tweet or update a Facebook status showing an encounter with your organization. Many social networking members write-up info that is regular to daily existence i.e. “on my way to work.” They are the form of customers who definitely are not inconvenienced to publish about dealings with you. More than half of Twitter and Facebook customers put up daily – so be conscious of what exactly is said about you!

3. Social media marketing coverage drives Search Engine Optimisation (Seo)

Search engine optimization is quite simply a strategy or number of techniques used to generate your enterprise to a higher rank on major search engines, like Google. Such exposure creates further site visitors to your website, increased sales and ultimately, an elevated bottom-line.

Social media marketing will support drive your Search engine optimization. Prolonged communications on Social media marketing sites will entice interest in your enterprise. Without having Social media interactions, it’s virtually unattainable to improve your Seo. The 2 move together and so are both critical to web marketing methods for your business.

Incorporating a powerful Social media marketing and Search engine optimization technique is just not a simple course of action. In very competitive industries, it could consider some months before highest outcomes are achieved. For the strategy to be sustainable, it requires ongoing focus and optimisation.

In the event you want help with Search engine optimization or Social media marketing, make sure to contact a professional. Some of your rivals currently have set up Search engine optimization and Social media methods in place. Make sure not to fall any further behind. Now is definitely the time for you to act.

Before you embark on the five steps, make sure you understand the customers you’ll be working with and the social media ecosystem you’ll be working in. Other important considerations are time and resources. How much staff time can you spare for social CRM (SCRM)? And what budget will you have for sentiment monitoring and listening tools?

Step 1: Find Your Customers

You need to learn how your customers relate to social media. Many people connect to the major social media sites which have broad appeal and large user communities. Facebook, for example, has 750 million users. In 2011, the site’s fastest growing age segment was 55+.

A second class of sites attracts people based on their interests. There are social networking sites for all kinds of people, from schoolteachers and sports fans to parents and programmers. A simple Web search reveals many of these sites.

You also need to keep an eye on sites that might have a peripheral connection to your products and services. For example, the customers of an outdoor equipment company may frequent a site dedicated to adventure travel. You want to be where your customers are and when it comes to social media that means following their interests not just their buying habits.

Step 2: Learn The Language

Once you’ve located the places where customers are either talking about you or about things that relate to your business, don’t jump in right away. Spend some time observing how the group works, who its leaders are, and the kind of language and tone the members use with each other. Your first step is to behave like you deserve to be part of the conversation. Take Mark Twain’s advice, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than it is to speak and remove all doubt.”

Step 3: Listen

Once you’ve located the sites where your customers congregate and spent some time getting a general idea of how they talk with each other, dig a little deeper. If there are subjects that you want to follow and the site has search capability, take a look at what’s been said in the past about those topics. This is listening in the social media world; it should precede participation.

Since you’ve probably identified multiple social media channels to track, how do you listen in on all of these conversations? If you have the resources, consider a staff member dedicated to social media. That person can keep track of the sites you’ve chosen, coordinate responses to conversations, and incorporate data from conversations into your CRM system. Don’t engage in more channels than you can monitor effectively.

Listening is made easier by social media monitoring and sentiment measuring tools. Listening tools can tell you what’s being said and where; sentiment tools can gauge the general tone of the conversations that mention you. Both can increase your social media productivity.

Your company also has great monitoring tools already in place — your employees. Many will use social media outside of work, and they may run across topics that pertain to your business. Employees should be encouraged to report anything they learn to the person you’ve designated to monitor social media.

Step 4: Engage

When your business is ready to engage with customers in a social media conversation, establish clear rules about who does the talking and where they do it. Someone from service could participate in conversations on a site where service issues are discussed. An engineer would be appropriate on a site geared toward developers.

Look for places to engage that will have an impact. If you see the opportunity to make a difference in a conversation, jump in — even if it’s only to say that you don’t know the answer to a question but can find someone who does. Then be sure to follow up. That level of authenticity coupled with tangible assistance builds loyalty with the person you helped. It also establishes you as a reliable participant in the community.

You can also start your own conversations. You could begin with a legitimate question about your customers and what they’re thinking. This approach can deliver actionable intelligence more quickly and inexpensively than a formal survey. Don’t make these the only conversations in which you participate. You’re there to participate as a peer not an interrogator.

Step 5: Make Use Of What You Learn

You can use two types of social media information: the data you uncover in conversations and the data that your customers and potential customers volunteer in setting up their profiles. Don’t focus only on the latter. It ignores the truly social aspects of social media and the richer information that conversations can bring to your attention. It’s also a source that’s likely to diminish as social media users become more sophisticated in their use of privacy controls.

There is no technology that can automatically detect the social media data relevant to your business and sort it by your customers or accounts. People engaged in conversations and monitoring social media sources will need to manually incorporate important information into customer records.

But the use of social media information doesn’t stop there. It also involves careful process design. For example, since a call for help in social media is heard by many people, the transfer of responsibility from social media monitor to designated service contact to the service personnel who can respond is vitally important. The same is true for sales, marketing, and product development.

Finally, make sure your employees know that social CRM can be an all-hands exercise that benefits the entire company, just like traditional CRM.

]]> http://theadmaster.net/five-steps-to-an-effective-social-crm-strategy/feed/ 0 http://theadmaster.net/social-media-seo-takes-on-new-meaning-with-new-google-algorithm/ http://theadmaster.net/social-media-seo-takes-on-new-meaning-with-new-google-algorithm/#comments Sun, 23 Oct 2011 08:59:16 +0000 Guest http://theadmaster.net/?p=2728

Social media SEO has increased in importance, thanks to some changes in Google’s algorithms, most recently the Google Panda update. What Google Panda has done is made social media connections a bigger part of their SEO algorithm – in other words, the more connections a person has, the more likely some of their material they have read or recommended will show up in the person’s search engine results page.

And social media SEO looks like it is going to become more important with the introduction of new tools like Google+.

For example, Craig is looking for information on vacuum cleaner repairs. If Craig is not logged in to Google, or does not have many connections, Google will present him with the most objective posts that rely on the typical search engine optimization techniques. He will most likely be presented with the best optimized site about vacuum cleaner repairs.

But, if Craig is active on social networks like Twitter, is connected to a lot of people on Google+, and even has someone in his Google Contacts list, Stacy, who has a keen interest in vacuum cleaner repair shops, then anything Stacy has said about vacuum repair is going to appear on Craig’s search engine results. If Stacy has left a comment on a vacuum repair page, or shared a vacuum repair blog post, or even written a vacuum repair blog post herself, then her results will show up on Craig’s page.

This will have two positive effects on social media SEO. One, the more connections a business has with potential customers, the more likely they are to show up on the search engine results page. And two, people who write blog posts about vacuum repair can finally show their faces in public without being embarrassed.

Social media SEO takes advantage of the connections between a searcher and their networks, because people tend to believe and trust testimonials and opinions of their friends more than they do of complete strangers. But they believe and trust testimonials of complete strangers over the information provided by traditional marketers.

The implications of this for traditional marketers is that they may no longer bark at their customers with new special offers and promises of big savings and crazy prices. Customers are no longer looking, at least on social media, for typical marketing behavior. They are skipping TV
advertisements, leaving commercial radio for satellite radio and Internet radio, and blocking ads on websites with software, all to avoid being slimed with traditional advertising methods.

These days, customers want relationships with their companies. They want to hear from companies they trust, and that have provided value to them in the past. They want to connect with companies that will not send them constant advertisements or pester them with needless communication. They would rather work with companies who help them answer questions, solve problems, and help them fix issues.

This means that for social media SEO to truly work, businesses need to connect with potential customers via social networks like Google+, Twitter, and Facebook (if appropriate), and communicate with them in the manner they want, not the way the marketing department thinks it should be. The businesses need to create a valuable newsletter, add people to their email list, and ask them to add the business email address to their white list. They also need to frequently write blog posts that address different questions and problems these potential customers are facing.

As these businesses connect with these customers via social media, it also means the business will show up with a high search rank whenever these customers do a search for a topic the business can handle.

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Article by Julie Ann Ross. With 20 years in marketing, advertising and 10 years in internet marketing, Rostin Ventures has refined the social media SEO Expert Formula. http://www.rostinventures.com/ offers social media marketing services that are affordable and easy to access and are combined to build the formula that drives search engine ranking through Social Media Optimization, Online Reputation Management, Social Marketing and web 2.0 communities and resources.







]]> http://theadmaster.net/social-media-seo-takes-on-new-meaning-with-new-google-algorithm/feed/ 0 http://theadmaster.net/are-we-in-social-overload/ http://theadmaster.net/are-we-in-social-overload/#comments Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:26:05 +0000 Sheila http://theadmaster.net/?p=2713

Recently Google’s latest social network, Google+ opened to the public. In an effort to create a little fun around the subject, College Humor created a two minute video about Not Google+, which encourages people not to join Google+ as we have too many social networks already. Do they have a point?

Google+’s most obvious competitor is Facebook. While Google+ offers certain advantages to its users that Facebook lacks, a lot of Facebook users were resistant to switching networks for no other reason than the hassle of it. Our friends are on Facebook, our pictures videos, links and info and the thought of having to build all of that up somewhere else didn’t quite seem worth it. Twitter or Foursquare, however, are so different in their offering, setting up accounts with them does seem worth it, depending on one’s interests of course.

Between news aggregation, social bookmarking, and social networking sites we are already elbow deep in platforms we have to log into and keep up to date with. Do we really need another one? Consumers and the general public love social networking sites, but with so many available, information is getting lost, their influence means less, privacy issues are being questioned, and our ability to interact face-to-face is slowly diminishing. And while most brands are eager to join social networks, they have yet to see a real return on investment. Just as a brand is starting to become familiar with one platform it seems another one becomes available. And there is this pressure to have a presence on all of them, even though it might not make sense for your company or campaign. Moreover, developing a sound marketing strategy involves time and consideration and half the time brands aren’t even entirely sure how these platforms work and how consumers interact with them.

The issue isn’t whether or not Google should have developed a social network – the issue is what are we, consumers and brands alike, trying to prove? We have entered the ‘look at me, look at me’ culture, where everyone is shouting about themselves. They are making
videos about how much fun they’re having at the office, they are posting pictures of themselves showing the world how much fun they were having that weekend and more. Public profiles are important of course, but please, one thing at a time. Instead of throwing a million things up online, think about what you stand for, who you are, who you want to be associated with and how you want to be viewed. And only then, start hiring the best people, the most creative minds to build up something really, really good. Something that will have the world going ‘wow’.

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Adaptive Consultancy is a London-based digital agency specializing in web development, design, ecommerce and internet marketing. Services include search engine optimization, paid search, email and social media marketing. For more on digital marketing agency London
visit http://www.adaptiveconsultancy.com/







]]> http://theadmaster.net/are-we-in-social-overload/feed/ 0 http://theadmaster.net/6-essential-social-media-marketing-tips/ http://theadmaster.net/6-essential-social-media-marketing-tips/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 09:59:49 +0000 Guest http://theadmaster.net/?p=2698

When you go about marketing your online business through social media, there are a few basic guidelines you should aim to follow. These can be applied to forming connections in social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, as well as in social bookmarking services like Digg, StumbleUpon or Reddit – although, perhaps to a slightly lesser extent.

Being a success through social media is all about leveraging connections, and giving in to the fact that no website is an island. If you are completely self-absorbed and only socialize with others for your own benefit, then you will have a hard time building a loyal following. These next few tips will help get you moving in the right direction, so you can grow your network much faster by using social media.

1. Get To Know The Culture: Before you get too trigger-happy and start sending friend requests or following people all over the place, get comfortable with how people interact in your chosen network. Find out what people respond to and get a sense of the language and etiquette people use when communicating with each other. Generally people will sense a spammer from a mile away, and most often it’s because spammers don’t interact in the same way as normal people do (or most times, not at all). If you want to avoid looking like a spammer, then learn to follow this communication etiquette.

2. Don’t Grow Your Network Too Fast: Another thing that could make you look rather bad is attempting to grow your friend or follower count too quickly. Having 10 followers when you follow about 500 will make people think twice about what you’re on the site for, and they probably won’t want to know you. If you grow your friend count at a more natural rate then it’ll look a lot better, and you’ll get many more people interested in connecting with you in the long run. Also, another key to being successful with social media is having a good quality following – not just quantity. Having 50 friends that you’ve taken the time to become closely acquainted with (and turn into loyal followers) is better than a few hundred that only serve to clog up your list.

3. Show Interest In Others: One way you can grow your network really quickly is to simply show that you’re interested in what others are doing – not by sending out a stock email, but by reading a person’s profile, visiting their website and sending them a personalized message to show that you care about their ambitions. This will get the majority of people you send requests to accepting them, or people you follow to follow you back – hence, avoiding too much of a hit-and-miss approach for growing your network.

4. Respond To Comments: If someone writes on your wall, or mentions you in a tweet, take the time to write back to them. This reassures people that there is an actual person sitting behind your account, and helps grow the trust that followers have in you. Obviously it can become a little difficult to keep up with everyone once your network gets really big, but in the initial stages you should try to do what you can to make each of your followers feel extra special.

5. Share Content From Other People: Re-tweeting or sharing content that other people post can do a lot to increase the trust and interest that your followers have in you. First, it indicates you are on the site to participate as a normal person would, and are not just there to send people to your own web links. Any relevant content you share adds value to those you share it with, and most of the time they will love you for it as much as if you had created the content yourself. Secondly, it hints to your followers that if any of them created a quality piece of content, then there’s a chance that you might take the time to share that as well.

6. Learn From Others: If you are still unsure about what you should be doing to succeed in social media, then one of the best things you can do is take a look at those who are already successful to see how they do it. Visit the people in your niche who have loads of friends or followers and watch how they interact with their network. Get to know the various techniques they use and you’re likely to find a way you can use them to grow your own following as well.

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Article by Brent McCoy. Millionaire Studio is an online entrepreneurship blog that features articles on online business, blogging, marketing and social media: http://millionairestudio.com/







]]> http://theadmaster.net/6-essential-social-media-marketing-tips/feed/ 0 http://theadmaster.net/nine-steps-to-social-networking-success/ http://theadmaster.net/nine-steps-to-social-networking-success/#comments Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:10:43 +0000 Guest http://theadmaster.net/?p=2667

Social Networking has taken the world of business by storm. Properly used, it can establish you as an expert in your field, keep you in-touch with customers, sell your products, and market your business or organization. It is an around-the-clock marketing machine that never sleeps.

In our seminars, we are asked how to get started using it. While that is a simple question, it requires detailed understanding of the company, knowledge of business goals, and much more information as well. So, to provide people with meaningful assistance we developed these steps. Be advised that they do not provide answers, but lead you to asking the right questions.

Why? Pertinent questions that apply to your business and situation only are invaluable. And those questions, my friend, are far more valuable to you than their answers. There are people, books, consultants, aplenty to give you answers, but if you don’t answer the right questions, where are you? By developing the high quality questions that apply to your business, you will create a social networking campaign that is customized to your specific needs. To be successful, that is essential because your customers, their needs, your employees, your very business is unique. This is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor.

So, treat these steps as guidelines. Reorder them, combine them, delete any that you care to, but please read them all. Number nine you will find particularly interesting as it combines the online world and the offline world. Social networking has been around for hundreds of years. Don’t think that it only takes place from your keyboard. Nothing could be further from the truth.

1. Goals are not Wants and Wishes. List the goals of your social networking campaign and verify that they are achievable. As one goal approaches completion have the next goal ready to implement.

2. Who Will Conduct Your Social Networking Campaign? Creating your own content takes time. If you hire someone to create your content, provide information on your company and approve the material before it’s published. If you give the job to an employee, provide the time and resources necessary to carry out the work.

3. How will you motivate your audience to tell you what they want in your social networking campaign? Ask, and offer a premium. For example, a free report, a discount coupon, entrance in a contest, a gift, or something else of unquestioned value for the time they spend responding to your query.

4. Determine what social media sites are best for your needs. Look for ways to distribute your social networking campaign into every niche. Visit the major social networking sites and determine which are best for your needs. A blog requires writing, a micro-blog requires you to write tight headlines, video requires you to make, edit, and upload them. Choose the site(s) that fit your needs and create your accounts.

5. Your Web Site is the Crown Jewel of Your Social Media Campaign. Bring your Web site up-to-date and be sure that it supports your social networking campaign by providing the pertinent information your audience is looking for. Integrate your site into your social networking campaign. Give your Web site our 30-second test here.

6. Create Your Content, Place it Online, and Implement Your Ongoing Content Creation Plan. Only create content of unquestioned value that your audience wants. There is no point spending time and dollars to create material that no one will view. Remember, you are selling your social networking campaign for something more valuable than money, someone’s time.

7. Go Live and Tell the World. E-mail your audience to notify them that your social media campaign is online. If you have an over-the-counter business, place signs in the store, include an insert in bags, put your online information on all company paperwork including business cards, invoices, and billing statements.

8. Determining the Effectiveness of Your Social Networking Campaign. Look for increased activity on your Web site. Have your Web master provide you data on where your visitors are coming from. Look for traffic from your social networking sites.

9. Offline activities to assist making your social networking campaign successful.

* Attend conferences in your field and those related to your target audience.

* Become an acknowledged expert in your field by publishing in Twitter and on a blog. Publish articles in industry magazines, newsletters, and blogs.

* Collaborate with cause marketing. The old saying, “Two heads are better than one,” is true.

* E-mail marketing, use it as a marketing tool and to keep-in-touch.

* Engage your employees in your social networking campaign. Publish a social networking policy that tells them what they can do, not what they can’t do.

* Give a free seminar at your place of business. Promote it online and with a press release.

* Host free seminars at your place of business.

* Join Chambers of Commerce, networking, and business groups.

* Paper magazines. Don’t throw them away, cut them up and send pertinent articles to your clients. Find the article(s) online and use e-mail to send a link your clients.

* LinkedIn is perfect for your needs. Use it.

* Market to those who can refer business to you, and to those who do business with you.

* Publish a Newsletter. Include trivia, winter driving tips, a crossword puzzle, Windows and Mac tips, new products with links to independent reviews, gift ideas, etceteras. Do not use your newsletter for selling. Do keep it informative, timely, and fun.

* Send hand written Christmas cards, and thank you notes to your clients. Begin writing them in October, if that’s what it takes.

* Quality content provides unquestioned value. Customers want answers. Provide them.

* Speak at conferences and industry events.

* Subscribe to industry magazines, blogs, and newsletters that your customers read.

* Take every opportunity to get together with customers, and potential customers.

* Throw a party.

* Use both sides of any handout. The space you waste could be marketing for you.

* Video. Create your YouTube channel and place your videos there.

* Your Web site is the crown jewel of your social networking campaign. See that its design supports your business needs.

These steps are also available at: Web Content Rx

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Wayne English is a Web content and social networking expert. Web Content Rx, A Quick and Handy Guide for Writers, Webmasters, eBayers, and Business People is a Top 5 Business Title in Leadership Books at The Washington Post. Wayne teaches social networking, is published in newspapers, magazines, and newsletters. Follow him and WebContentRx on YouTube, Twitter, and read his blog at: http://webcontentrx.typepad.com/webcontentrx/.







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